4/1/2025 Global (International Christian Concern) — Thousands of Christ followers continue to face extensive persecution in many countries, and, despite a pledge from its members, the United Nations (UN) is not doing enough to protect them.
The UN was formed in 1945 to promote peace among nations and to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights.” The organization began with 51 countries and currently has 193 member states.
In 1948, the United Nations drafted and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which clearly explains its positions on various human rights issues, including religious freedom. The UN also created measures as part of its charter, which all member nations agree upon when joining, to penalize countries disregarding their duties to protect peace.
Article 18 of the declaration explains that “everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”
According to the UDHR, member states pledge “to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” This pledge applies “both among the peoples of member states themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.”
However, in the face of this pledge, the UN isn’t doing enough regarding the punitive measures at its disposal to penalize certain offending countries. Measures of the UN Security Council include sanctions, “the severance of diplomatic relations,” and even military force.
While some countries are under UN sanctions for one reason or another, other nations, including Eritrea, Pakistan, and Vietnam, relentlessly persecute Christians and are free from sanctions.
Governments in these three countries routinely condone attacks, discrimination, and imprisonment of Christians based solely on their faith in Jesus Christ. The U.S. State Department has placed Eritrea and Pakistan on its Countries of Particular Concern list for engaging in or allowing severe religious freedom abuses within their borders. Additionally, in its 2025 recommendations to the State Department, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that Vietnam be placed on the list.
In Eritrea, Christians suffer greatly due to its authoritarian government and the dictatorial paranoia of the ruling regime. The nation is known as “the North Korea of Africa” because of the government’s repressive stance on human rights. International Christian Concern, in its 2025 Global Persecution Index, stated that “those who dare cross the government are swiftly punished, with many Christians and other persons of conscience thrown in prison for standing by their faith in the face of government persecution. Survivors of these prisons report regular beatings, severe torture, and degrading conditions in the overcrowded facilities.”
USCIRF stated in 2024 that approximately 460 Christians were imprisoned in the African nation and described Eritrean prisons as “horrifically maintained, [with] those incarcerated endur[ing] physical abuse, sexual violence, and torture.”
Christians in Pakistan suffer from discrimination in work placement, harassment, charges of blasphemy, and physical attacks. In 2023, a mob of thousands in the nation destroyed two dozen churches and attacked Christians after blasphemy charges were falsely levied at them.
And in Vietnam, communist authorities place tight restrictions on religious freedom. Christians continue to be arrested and imprisoned for following their faith.
For Christians suffering extreme persecution in Eritrea, Pakistan, and Vietnam, the UN hasn’t taken enough action to ensure the abuse ends. Mainstream reporting on the maltreatment of Christ followers has either flown under the radar or is conspicuously missing from global attention.
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