Panelists and representatives of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom shared the impact of religious freedom violations against children in Tibet, Ukraine, Pakistan and Myanmar during a virtual hearing held April 30.
USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler explained how children are often the targets of religious freedom violations because they are defenseless. Harming young children leads to the destabilization of families and entire faith communities.
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“The consequences are severe. Social cohesion deteriorates, hope for the future fades, and the very survival and identity of these communities is put at risk,” Hartzler said.
Especially concerning are countries where religious education is limited and governments prevent children from learning or practicing their faith. These policies erode religious identities, preventing beliefs from being passed to the next generation.
Violations in Tibet
Gyal Lo, Tibet specialist and educational sociologist on China’s education policies in Tibet, shared his personal testimony on religious life for children in Tibet.
“What is happening today is not a series of isolated policies. … It’s the [entire] system, one that increasingly separates Tibetan children and other minority children from their religious identities,” Lo explained.
Today, the Chinese government has shifted its focus to children, with over a million Tibetan children placed in China’s colonial boarding schools, according to Gyal Lo. These institutions purposely separate children from their families, languages, and religious traditions at a formative age.
Students are often barred from entering monasteries and forbidden from participating in religious activities, even during holidays. These restrictions are reinforced in schools.
“Religious knowledge is entirely absent in formal schooling. As a result, many Tibetan children are growing up without meaningful exposure to their own spiritual culture,” Lo said.
Violations in Ukraine
Vladyslav Havrylov, global fellow for the Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues at Georgetown University, shared about religious violations against Ukrainian children.
The Russian government supports the destruction of Ukrainian citizens, Havrylov said. The ideology imposed by the Russian government enforces the supremacy of the Russian Federation and Russian Orthodox Church.
“After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, … Russian Orthodox bishops received documents about how many children [were] in occupied territories of Ukraine,” Havrylov said.
These documents provided information about children studying in occupied territories in Ukraine and helped bishops determine how to deport children to the Russian Federation because they live near the Russian border.
“Temporary accommodation centers were developed post-2022 near the Ukrainian border,” Havrylov explained. These centers were created by the Russian Orthodox church and intended to use Russification to erase Ukrainian children’s cultural and religious identity.
During the process, children are forcibly deported from Ukraine and placed in the centers. “For right now, we know about at least 20,570 children who [were] forcibly deported from Ukraine. Only [2,000] successfully returned to Ukraine,” Havrylov said.
Violations in Pakistan
Maliha Zia, Pakistani human rights activist and associate director of the Legal Aid Society, explained how forced conversions occur via child marriages in Pakistan.
“Forced conversion through marriage is a practice where a person, predominantly from the Muslim community, kidnaps and abducts girls from religious minority communities, predominantly the Hindu and Christian communities, and coerces them to both convert to a different religion, namely Islam, and marry the Muslim perpetrator,” Zia explained.
Conversions rarely begin with abductions. Most attacks begin with ideologically motivated grooming, resulting in the entrapment of a vulnerable child.
“The perpetrators reach out and actually find these girls [and] start communicating with them. And there’s an initial period of false relationship building, leading to gradual isolation from family, and the creation of dependency. And finally, exploitation,” Zia said.
After meeting up under false pretenses, the girls are then abducted and taken to courts or like-minded religious leaders who convert them through an illegal conversion certificate. The informal document asserts a false age of 18 to create the appearance of a voluntary marriage.
Girls who are abducted may be trafficked and suffer physical abuse, resulting in anxiety, PTSD, and depression. Marriages often serve a defensive purpose in these communities, generating conditions of vulnerability for young girls.
“A girl’s constitutionally protected faith is documented away from her, and the recovery of the body does not restore what was taken. … The harm extends beyond individual survivors. Every case that ends without accountability sends a message to minority communities that the girls are unprotected,” Zia said.
Violations in Myanmar
Rohingya activist and student at the University of Washington Mohamed Imran described his experiences as a child within the Rohingya community in Myanmar, also known as Burma. Despite being a member of an indigenous community, Imran never felt like he belonged.
“I was born into a life where I did not exist in the eyes of my own country. The government denied [me] citizenship, education, freedom. As a child, I grew up knowing I was not seen as human,” he said.
At only 12 years old, Imran was forced to leave his impoverished home and eventually was sold to human traffickers. He was later placed in a detention center, where a United Nations official heard his story. A month later, he was resettled in the United States.
“I cannot forget where I came from, because right now, Rohingya children are still living the life I once lived,” Imran said.
Two weeks ago, nearly 250 Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals were reported missing after a boat carrying them capsized in the Andaman Sea.
“Over a decade later, nothing has changed. … The Rohingya are still persecuted. Children are still being detained. They are waiting for someone to see them, someone to care,” Imran said.
Imran urged the United States to release Rohingya children from detention centers, expand resettlement opportunities for vulnerable children, invest in education and mental health support, and hold the Myanmar military accountable.
“No child should grow up behind bars seeking safety. … The children need protection, not punishment. I stand here today because someone chose to help me, but there are thousands of children still awaiting the same chance. … If they are lucky enough to grow up at all, please do not let them grow up forgotten,” Imran said.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Faith Pratt and originally published by Baptist Standard.
