June 25, 2022
The International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit 2022 will convene a Civil Society Congress that will develop ideas to promote religious freedom and innovate solutions for threats faith communities face around the world. The congress—which will take place June 28 from 2-6 p.m. at Renaissance Washington’s Potomac Ballroom—will provide organizations and religious communities the opportunity to send a delegation to present their proposal in front of their fellow advocates, as well as a listening panel of government representatives. All proposals will be collected and published in a report. Below is the contribution from 21Wilberforce.
While sharing the stories of persecution is a vital component of FoRB advocacy, helping policymakers and advocates fully understand issues and make informed decisions also requires information networks and comprehensive, data-driven decision support tools. 21Wilberforce’s International Religious Freedom Congressional Scorecard and Global Religious Freedom Data Spectrum projects are proven components of this network, and we hope to continue to develop these and other tools as part of a foundation of data for our shared movement’s work.
Six years ago, 21Wilberforce launched the IRF Congressional Scorecard to track continuing efforts by Congress to counter affronts to international religious freedom through legislation, caucuses, and commissions. This biannual Scorecard is nonpartisan, and we do not promote specific issues or legislation. This tool serves as a multi-year record of IRF legislative trends and legislator support for specific IRF issues. This tool has been widely utilized by congressional offices and advocates to identify gaps in issue engagement and find other strategic members of Congress to work with.
The Global Religious Freedom Data Spectrum aims to provide a comparative framework for viewing a wide range of data from 13 NGO and USG country rankings on the issues of freedom of religion or belief. By placing the rankings of these diverse organizations in one central place, the Data Spectrum offers advocates, academics, and policymakers the opportunity to take an ideologically broader look at FoRB data for each country in the world. The interactive map and data sets show the data in a compelling way that can help people understand the opportunities and gaps in Global Religious Freedom data.
21Wilberforce will continue to develop these pieces to deepen this data support framework. We invite collaboration to make these tools even more effective at driving tangible results for the persecuted.