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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its 2013 Annual Report. The Report highlights the status of religious freedom globally and identifies those governments that are the most egregious violators. According to the report, the situation of religious freedom in Azerbaijan deteriorated over the last few years.

The 2013 Annual Report recommends that the Secretary of State re-designate the following eight nations as “countries of particular concern” or CPCs: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan. USCIRF finds that seven other countries meet the CPC threshold and should be so designated: Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.

Azerbaijan is in the Tier 2 category next to such countries like Afghanistan, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos and Russia. USCIRF found the violations these governments engage in or tolerate are particularly severe.

“Despite the government’s claims of official tolerance, religious freedom conditions in Azerbaijandeteriorated over the past few years. During the reporting period, religious organizations were closed and non-violent religious activity was punished with detentions, fines and other penalties,” the document notes,” the document reads.

According to the report the penalties were increased for religion law violations in 2010 and 2011. Religious activity is illegal and the activities of registered groups are tightly regulated.

“Azerbaijan’s religion law has been amended 14 times since it was first adopted in 1992, with major restrictive changes adopted in secret. The law is used as the basis for limiting religious freedoms and for justifying police raids, detentions, and fines,” the report says.

The document says that Religious groups in Azerbaijan have been required to reregister five times since the 1992 religion law. The Commission notes that process is arbitrary and requires prior approval from local authorities before registering with the national government. “Azerbaijan is the only Council of Europe member state to impose a system of compulsory censorship of religious and other literature.”

The government has confiscated religious materials, including personal copies of the Qur’an and the Bible, as well as religious materials from Baptists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Hare Krishnas, at the country’s borders. “In 2012, police raided the homes of members of numerous religious communities,” the report says.

The document stresses that residents of the Nakhichevan exclave encounter more severe religious freedom restrictions than in Azerbaijan’s other regions.