S. 2747 — Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025

This section requires the President to impose the property-blocking sanctions authorized by Executive Order No. 13818 (i.e., sanctions on persons determined to be responsible for or complicit in serious human rights abuse or corruption) on Nigerian persons identified in a State Department report. The report, required not later than 90 days after enactment and annually thereafter, must list (1) federal officials or state governors who promoted, enacted, maintained blasphemy laws or tolerated violence by non-state actors invoking religious justifications (including designated foreign terrorist organizations under INA §219 or specially designated global terrorists under EO 13224) and (2) judges, magistrates, prison officials, or law enforcement authorities who enforced such laws through prosecution, conviction, imprisonment, or other deprivations of liberty; the specified period for the initial report is 10 years before enactment through submission, and for subsequent reports is from the prior report through submission. The report must be unclassified but may include a classified annex.

This section requires the Secretary of State, in annual reports under section 402(b)(1)(A) of the International Religious Freedom Act (22 U.S.C. 6442(b)(1)(A)) and concurrent reviews under section 301(a) of the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (22 U.S.C. 6442a(a)), to designate (1) the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) and (2) Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa as Entities of Particular Concern (EPC) for engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. (CPCs identify governments and EPCs identify non-state actors, such as terrorist groups, responsible for particularly severe violations, which may result in U.S. sanctions or other actions.) It authorizes waivers of these designations upon certifications to the appropriate congressional committees that, for the CPC, neither listed entity is operating in Nigeria and no blasphemy laws are enforced by its federal or state governments, and for an EPC, that the entity is not operating. This section also makes a technical correction in section 605(a)(1) of the International Religious Freedom Act (22 U.S.C. 6473a) by replacing "freedom religion" with "religious freedom".

This section defines terms for purposes of the Act: (1) appropriate congressional committees as the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs; (2) Boko Haram as Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad; (3) ISIS-West Africa as the Islamic State West Africa Province; (4) Nigerian blasphemy laws as provisions in Nigeria’s criminal, penal, or Shari’a codes that criminalize expression, behavior, or belief perceived as insulting religion; and (5) person as an individual or entity.