April 1, 2025
SENATE CONCURRENT
RESOLUTION No. 8
DIGEST OF RESOLUTION
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION condemning religious
persecution worldwide.
Holdman, Alting, Niezgodski, Deery
(HOUSE SPONSOR — LEHMAN)
February 3, 2025, read first time and referred to Committee on Public Policy.
February 13, 2025, reported favorably — Do Pass.
February 17, 2025, read second time, adopted by voice vote.
HOUSE ACTION
February 20, 2025, read first time and referred to Committee on Public Policy.
April 1, 2025, reported — Do Pass.
SC 8—RC 1506/DI JR April 1, 2025
First Regular Session 124th General Assembly (2025)
SENATE CONCURRENT
RESOLUTION No. 8
1 A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION condemning religious
2 persecution worldwide.
3 Whereas, The International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)
4 of 1998 declared it to be United States (U.S.) policy to condemn
5 violations of religious freedom and to promote and assist other
6 governments in the promotion of the fundamental right to
7 freedom of religion;
8 Whereas, In the years following the IRFA, persecution of
9 members of various religions has continued to persist in
10 measurable amounts across all habitable continents;
11 Whereas, Christian converts face public execution in
12 Somalia, are being stoned for practicing their faith in Kenya,
13 and over 6,000 were drowned or massacred by the Boko Haram
14 and Fulani militias with little government intervention in
15 Nigeria;
16 Whereas, In Mexico, Nicaragua, and Colombia, Christian
17 church leaders have been assaulted, threatened, and in some
18 cases killed by transnational criminal organizations or
19 paramilitary armed groups attempting to intimidate and silence
20 them;
21 Whereas, In China, Buddhists and Hui Muslims face
22 tightened restrictions and expanding destruction of places of
23 worship, Christian priests are being murdered for preaching
24 the Gospel, church belongings are being confiscated and
25 burned, and members of various religions that are not
SC 8—RC 1506/DI JR 2
1 registered with the government face risks of imprisonment or
2 torture;
3 Whereas, In China's Xinjiang province, thousands of
4 Muslims have been detained for "re-education" or transferred
5 to forced labor facilities, with the Uyghur population in
6 particular being subject to official harassment, arbitrary
7 detention, and draconian laws on religious dress;
8 Whereas, In India, ten of 28 states have laws restricting
9 religious conversions, hundreds of faith-based
10 nongovernmental organizations have lost licenses or foreign
11 funding, and 170 million Muslims live in an environment of
12 constant local violence without meaningful government
13 deterrence;
14 Whereas, North Korea's songbun system classifies citizens
15 based on their perceived loyalty to the state and places
16 religious practitioners within the "hostile" class, considering
17 them enemies of the state and deserving of discrimination,
18 punishment, isolation, and even execution for practicing their
19 faith or owning religious materials;
20 Whereas, In Burma, ethnoreligious minorities, including
21 the Muslim Rohingya and Christian Chin, have been subject to
22 institutionalized discrimination, mass killings, rapes,
23 government-run internment camps, and are denied basic rights
24 and dignity to the point that hundreds of thousands have been
25 forced to flee the country;
26 Whereas, In the Middle East, the Taliban continue to
27 persecute religious minorities in Afghanistan, millions of Sunni
28 Muslim Arabs, Yazidis, and Christians remain in internally
29 displaced person and refugee camps in Iraq, Christian
30 churches, villages, hospitals, and schools are being destroyed
31 by the Islamic government in Sudan, and widespread
32 Muslim-on-Muslim violence permeates throughout the region
33 along the Shia-Sunni divide;
34 Whereas, In Russia, the government continues to persecute
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1 religious minorities, including Muslims, Protestants, members
2 of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Falun Gong, and
3 indigenous religions, and has issued record-breaking prison
4 sentences to Jehovah's Witnesses for alleged extremism;
5 Whereas, Religious intolerance remains a serious concern
6 across Europe, where Muslims and Jews have faced rising
7 levels of xenophobia and discrimination in eleven countries,
8 including France, England, Poland, Austria, and Germany;
9 Whereas, Countless members of religious groups have a
10 history of being oppressed and persecuted by Communist
11 regimes and are held as prisoners for merely believing in and
12 worshiping according to their faith;
13 Whereas, The 2024 U.S. Commission on International
14 Religious Freedom Annual Report requested seventeen
15 countries be designated as Countries of Particular Concern
16 (CPC): Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea,
17 India, Iran, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia,
18 Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam, and
19 suggested another eleven countries be placed on the State
20 Department's Special Watch List (SWL), including Algeria,
21 Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Sri
22 Lanka, Syria, Turkey, and Uzbekistan;
23 Whereas, On December 29, 2023, in accordance with
24 IRFA, the U.S. Secretary of State designated twelve CPCs,
25 including Burma, People's Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea,
26 Iran, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Nicaragua,
27 Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan,
28 and placed on the SWL Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central African
29 Republic, Comoros, and Vietnam;
30 Whereas, Although only seventeen countries were placed on
31 the CPC or SWL in 2023, religious discrimination and
32 persecution is a global human rights problem that continues to
33 rise; and
34 Whereas, The right to religious freedom is a universal right
SC 8—RC 1506/DI JR 4
1 recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
2 Therefore,
3 Be it resolved by the Senate of the General Assembly
4 of the State of Indiana, the House of Representatives
5 concurring:
6 SECTION 1. That the Indiana General Assembly condemns
7 religious persecution and all violations of religious freedom
8 worldwide.
9 SECTION 2. That the Indiana General Assembly affirms
10 that religious freedom is a fundamental right of every individual
11 that should never be arbitrarily abridged by any government.
12 SECTION 3. That the Indiana General Assembly urges the
13 President of the United States and Congress to urge
14 discriminatory countries to cease their religious persecution and
15 combat religious persecution carried out by extremist non-state
16 actors.
17 SECTION 4. That the Indiana General Assembly urges the
18 President of the United States and Congress to urge the heads
19 of state around the world to uphold the right to religious
20 freedom and condemn the global persecution of any religious
21 group.
22 SECTION 5. The Secretary of the Senate is hereby directed
23 to transmit copies of this Resolution to Tim Overton and each
24 member of the Indiana congressional delegation.
SC 8—RC 1506/DI JR 5
COMMITTEE REPORT
Mr. President: The Senate Committee on Public Policy, to which
was referred Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 8, has had the same
under consideration and begs leave to report the same back to the
Senate with the recommendation that said resolution DO PASS.
(Reference is to SC 8 as introduced.)
ALTING, Chairperson
Committee Vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0
_____
COMMITTEE REPORT
Mr. Speaker: Your Committee on Public Policy, to which was
referred Senate Concurrent Resolution 8, has had the same under
consideration and begs leave to report the same back to the House with
the recommendation that said resolution do pass.
(Reference is to SC 8 as printed February 14, 2025.)
MANNING
Committee Vote: Yeas 11, Nays 0
SC 8—RC 1506/DI JR