Author Date

2022

Degree Name

BS

Department

Economics

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Defense Date

2022-03-08

Publication Date

2022-03-18

First Faculty Advisor

Dr. Brigham Frandsen

First Faculty Reader

Professor David Moore

Honors Coordinator

Dr. John Stovall

Keywords

religious freedom, economics, africa, conflict, human rights, freedom of religion or belief

Abstract

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, global religious freedom violations are on the rise, especially against religious minorities, as government leaders have used the pandemic as a mechanism to increase oppression (USCIRF 2021). The first week of February 2022, the international community recognized the one-year mark since the Myanmar government launched a coup and genocide campaign against Rohingya Muslims (Paddock 2022). As the Winter Olympics unfolds on the world stage, there is increased attention surrounding the nearly two million Uighur Muslims currently held in concentration camps in China (Abbas 2022). And even with growing headline reports, uncertainty surrounding how to respond to perpetrators of these abuses continues to dominate United States foreign policy priorities. Each of these growing religious freedom concerns is connected to growing economic concerns. Economic shocks such as COVID-19, political coups, inflation, and changes in GDP correlate directly with the growing number of religious freedom violations recorded worldwide (Grim 2019). Drawing explicit connections between economic indicators and freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) violations can assist the ongoing fight to protect human rights globally and ultimately informing policy to prevent genocide. This report aims to analyze the causal effect of economic shocks in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Nigeria in the last 20 years on FoRB violations in each country.

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/uht0238

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