US: When persecution is documented but not addressed, what comes next?

United States (MNN) — The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued its 2026 annual report on March 4, 2026, highlighting persecution hotspots around the world today. 

Yet a critical question remains: will the US government take that report and turn it into effective policies to help the persecuted? 

Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA explains that USCIRF’s annual report was meant to be “step one” in a process established by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

(Logo courtesy United States Commission on International Religious Freedom)

“That [report] goes to the State Department, and the State Department ultimately makes the determinations of Countries of Particular Concern, Special Watch List, [etc],” Nettleton says. 

However, the US State Department has not issued an International Religious Freedom Report (IRF) for two years.

“It’s like, okay, is this [USCIRF report] all we’re going to get? Is this the end of the process? Or is this as it was designed, ‘step one’ and now we’ll see what the State Department does with that?” Nettleton says. 

The IRF report from the State Department provides practical tools for the US to support religious freedom around the world. (More on that here.) Among other outcomes that respect human rights, this freedom can remove barriers to the gospel spreading. 

“I want to express appreciation for the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, the work that they do throughout the year, to identify, to document, to shine a light on violations of religious freedom around the world,” says Nettleton. 

“It helps us here at Voice of the Martyrs, when sort of the government is saying the same things that we’re saying about, in our case, only about Christians being persecuted.”

Nicaragua (Photo courtesy of Hermes Rivera via Unsplash)

For example, the Commission has recommended that the US redesignate Nicaragua as a Country of Particular Concern. Nicaragua is also a country that VOM USA has designated as “Restricted” this year for its intensifying persecution of Christians. 

“It is a country where pastors have been arrested. Pastors have been kicked out of the country. The government is using technology purchased from China to monitor people digitally — monitor where they are, monitor what they’re doing,” says Nettleton. “Most of us don’t know that that’s happening.”

If you’re a US citizen, consider contacting your government representatives and expressing your interest in seeing this State report issued. But no matter where home is for you, you can respond in prayer as you consider the Commission’s annual report findings. Access the report here.

“There are 29 countries, so you could literally pray through that list every month and use this as a sort of government-issued prayer guide on behalf of our persecuted brothers and sisters,” says Nettleton.

Learn more at VOM USA’s website, persecution.com. 

Header photo is a stock image courtesy of Kevin Lanceplaine via Unsplash.