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Hundreds of protesters with signs and flags in front of a capital building.
Tibetan monks outside the Labrang Monastery in Tibet. Editorial Credit: Editorial credit: Marcin Szymczak / Shutterstock.com.

Religious Freedom

Freedom of worship is an important element of democracy, encouraging full political participation, and strengthening pluralism more broadly.

Freedom of worship—of belief and nonbelief—is an important element of democracy, contributing to social peace, encouraging full political participation, and strengthening pluralism more broadly. Free religious communities can make important contributions to society, and individual conscience can serve as a last bastion of liberty and a source of great resolve in highly repressive settings.

Freedom House provides emergency assistance to religious freedom defenders, civil society organizations, and survivors of religious persecution in dozens of countries. This assistance has benefitted individuals from more than a dozen different faiths. It covers medical treatment, legal representation, prison visits, trial monitoring, dependent support, and temporary relocation. We also support local initiatives to promote tolerance and proactively address hostility toward religious minority groups and ongoing tensions between different faith communities. If you would like to interview a Freedom House expert on this topic, please email [email protected].

Chinese soldiers amass outside of Labrang Monastery in Gansu Province to prevent protests during Losar, the Tibetan lunar New Year festival, in February 2016 (Christophe Boisvieux/Getty Images)

The Battle for China's Spirit

Religious Revival, Repression, and Resistance under Xi Jinping

Controls over religion in China have increased since 2012, seeping into new areas of daily life and triggering growing resistance from believers.

Learn More
Sarah Cook video screenshot at Carnegie Council event Uighur genocide

Watch the Video Clip: Genocide in Xinjiang

Asia Society's Isaac Stone Fish and Freedom House's Sarah Cook discuss the situation in Xinjiang where millions of Uyghurs are being held in concentration camps and whether it constitutes a genocide, at a special event hosted by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. 

Watch Now
Ilham Tohti Freedom Award Winner China Uighur

Radio Free Asia: Jailed Uyghur Scholar Ilham Tohti Receives Freedom House’s ‘Freedom Award’

Jailed Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti was honored with Freedom Award in absentia by the democracy watchdog group Freedom House. An outspoken economics professor who regularly highlighted the religious and cultural persecution of the Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority in China, Tohti was charged with promoting ethnic separatism and was handed a life sentence. 

Learn More

Freedom House in the Media:

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How China spins the Xinjiang story to the Chinese opens in new tab

September 8, 2019

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Myanmar shuts down internet in conflict areas as UN expert warns of potential abuses during blackout opens in new tab

June 25, 2019

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Chinese Christians flee China amid crackdown on church: ‘No longer safe for us’ opens in new tab

April 8, 2019

News & Perspectives:

Uyghur protest

美国:自由之家称赞维吾尔人权政策法案获得通过

Press release

May 28, 2020

Uyghur protest

美國:自由之家稱讚維吾爾人權政策法獲得通過

Press release

May 28, 2020

Uyghur protest

United States: Freedom House Applauds Passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act

Press release

May 27, 2020

Religious freedom in India during COVID-19

State-Sponsored Religious Discrimination Rises with the Pandemic

Perspectives

May 18, 2020

BJP and Shiv Sena flags

Can Indian Democracy Survive Modi’s Hindu Nationalist Agenda?

Perspectives

January 8, 2020

Candlelit vigil for victims of 2011 Maspero protests

To Protect Religious Freedom in Egypt, Ease Authoritarian Restrictions

Perspectives

November 21, 2019

Featured Experts

Sarah Cook Expert Photo

Sarah Cook

Research Director for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

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