Lantos Foundation, Bellwether International, and Notre Dame's Religious Liberty Clinic Release 2026 Advocacy Brief on Religious Prisoners of Conscience

Today, the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, Bellwether International, and Notre Dame’s Lindsay and Matt Mouron Religious Liberty Clinic released the second annual edition of a report titled, “Religious Prisoners of Conscience: An Advocacy Brief Prepared for the IRF Summit Community.”

The report analyzes global patterns and practices in religious prisoner of conscience cases. Some perpetrator governments criminalize religious conduct directly, while others target religious minorities through vague, overbroad, or selectively enforced laws. Among the most severe offenders are China and Uzbekistan, two countries from which the IRF Summit selected individuals for its 2026 Religious Prisoners of Conscience (RPOC) Campaign. The report and campaign build on the 2025 IRF Summit RPOC Campaign.

This report aims to equip the IRF Summit community with the information necessary to support effective advocacy for the global release of RPOC. It provides an overview of the current global RPOC landscape, drawing on data from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) prisoners of conscience database.

The report also reviews the RPOC Campaign, for which prisoner selection was guided by multiple factors, including: the potential for meaningful diplomatic advocacy based on U.S. foreign relations and whether each case reflected broader, systemic patterns of persecution warranting international attention. The 2026 campaign focuses on Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri in China and Fayzulla Agzamov in Uzbekistan, both of whom have suffered under severe restrictions on freedom of religion or belief.

By advocating for their release, this campaign seeks not only to secure justice for these individuals but also to draw global attention to the pervasive violations of religious freedom occurring in these countries and beyond. As with the success of campaigns in the past, due to efforts from the IRF Summit RPOC campaign, and persistent advocacy from organizations including the Human Rights Foundation, Freedom House, and others, Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri was released on July 3, 2026.

Read the full report here.