The order also calls for diplomats to increase efforts raising concerns with partner countries over religious discrimination. The president did not hold a public ceremony for the signing nor make public remarks about the implementation of the order. The signing occurred after the president and first lady visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday afternoon, and amid tense protests occurring in the capital and across the country for over a week in response to the video-taped killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in Minnesota.
The day before, the president took a photo outside St. John's Episcopal Church across the street from the White House, but drew intense criticism over federal law enforcement’s use of rubber bullets and physical force to disperse peaceful protesters for Trump’s short walk to the church. The president’s order follows the publication in April of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) annual report, which documents the state of religious freedoms around the world. The group is an independent, bipartisan U.S. government advisory board that makes policy recommendations based on their findings. -Full Report
Declaration of Principles for the International Religious Freedom Alliance
US, at least 17 countries to launch first-ever International Religious Freedom Alliance
