Washington - The US State Department has designated China, Iran, Iraq, Burma, and Sudan as countries of particular concern for violations of religious freedom, making them liable for US diplomatic and economic sanctions.
The designations are the first under a procedure mandated by Congress in last year's Religious Freedom Act. The test is whether a government has "engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom during the preceding 12 months."
The State Department is also naming Serbia and the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, which are not sovereign states, as "particularly severe violators of religious freedom".