Whereas religious freedom is a fundamental right enshrined in the American Constitution and critically tied to America’s founding and self-understanding; Whereas international religious freedom is a universally recognized human right and the protection and promotion globally of this right attracts broad, bipartisan support; Whereas every individual’s rights to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion is guaranteed under the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted at Paris December 10, 1948, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted at New York December 16, 1966, which recognize that Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance ; Whereas according to the bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, abuses committed by governments and non-state actors has increased and the incarceration of prisoners of conscience remains widespread; Whereas according to the latest Pew Research Center’s Study of Global Restrictions on Religion, which surveyed 2015, an estimated 79 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where freedom of religion and conscience is highly restricted, either by the government or by social groups; Whereas according to the same study by the Pew Research Center, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt, Russia, China, Iran, Burma, and Vietnam had some of the highest levels of either government restrictions on religion or social hostilities experienced by religious groups; Whereas according to the same Pew Research Center Study, the two geographic regions with the highest government restrictions continue to be the Middle East-North Africa and the Asia-Pacific