The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF) on Tuesday said Boko Haram had become the primary perpetrator
of religiously-related violence in Nigeria.
The USCIRF, in a brief statement issued in Washington, stated it had
documented the group’s attacks from July 2012 to July 2013 to arrive at
its conclusion.
“Boko Haram’s targets include churches, individual Christians, Muslim
critics, and persons engaged in behaviour deemed un-Islamic. Others are northern elders, schools, police stations, government buildings, newspapers, and banks”, it noted.
It said the International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in
November 2012 and August 2013 said there was reasonable basis to
believe that Boko Haram committed crimes against humanity.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that USCIRF had earlier this year
recommended that Nigeria be designated as a “country of particular
concern” (CPC).
The statement also recalled that the commission recommended CPC
status for Nigeria since 2009, adding: “Before that, Nigeria had been on
USCIRF’s Watch List since 2002.’’
The USCIRF was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of
1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and
religion or belief abroad.
This was in line with the definition of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments.
It gives independent policy recommendations to the U.S. President, Secretary of State and the Congress.
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