United States (MNN) — The year 2025 ended without the U.S. Department of State releasing its annual report on International Religious Freedom.
That’s a problem for several reasons. First, because 2024 ended the same way: without a new religious freedom report. That means the most recent State designations were made in 2023, and they don’t necessarily reflect current world realities.
Second, those 2023 designations expired after December 31, 2025.
Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs, USA explains that State designations of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC), Entities of Particular Concern (EPC), and Special Watch List (SWL) gave tools to the U.S. government to encourage religious freedom in those places and groups. If you’re curious, the 2023 list included countries and entities such as Iran, Vietnam, China, Boko Haram, and the Taliban.
(Logo courtesy of United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, USCIRF)
Nettleton says that in 2024, the lack of an international religious freedom report may have been due to the pending change of administrations from President Joseph Biden to President Donald Trump.
“But now that we’ve come to the end of 2025 and there hasn’t been a report in 2025 either, it seems like this is falling by the wayside, or it’s not a priority, or it is being skipped over somehow,” he says. “Obviously, for those of us who care about religious freedom, that’s concerning.”
Instead, 2025 saw budget cuts across the U.S. government and at least one significant delay regarding the International Religious Freedom Act.
The 1998 act created three government entities to monitor religious freedom conditions abroad. One of them is the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and another is the Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom. What happened in 2025 was that President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve in this ambassador role, Rep. Mark Walker, did not receive a Senate confirmation hearing, thus delaying leadership in the position.
Yet persecution of Christians around the world isn’t going away. Just take a look at the 2026 World Watch List from Open Doors, released January 14.
“We need to make sure that our government leaders know that religious freedom around the world is important to us,” says Nettleton. “We care about our Christian brothers and sisters who are being persecuted in northern Nigeria, China, Iran, North Korea, and those places like that around the world.”
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(Image courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs, USA)
“[The 1998 International Religious Freedom Act] set a standard that every year the State Department is required to provide a report about religious freedom around the world. It is not suggested. It is directed,” says Nettleton. “So I think it is a valid question to present to your congressman, to your Senator: ‘Hey, why didn’t we see this report in 2024, and now we didn’t see it in 2025? Is that law being followed? If not, why not?'”
No matter what country you live in, you can learn how to pray more specifically for the persecuted Church. Learn how to receive a copy of Voice of the Martyrs’ 2026 Global Prayer Guide by visiting persecution.com.
“The Global Prayer Guide gives you the ability to know, ‘Hey, who is the persecutor in that country? What do Christians endure when they follow Christ in that place?’” says Nettleton.
Header image is a stock photo courtesy of Diva Plavalaguna via Pexels.
