FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2005

Contact: 
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (202) 523-3240      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, ext. 27 

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is pleased to invite you to an on-the-record briefing on the current status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief in Russia with Oleg Mironov, former and first Human Rights Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, and Mufti Ismagil Shangareev, Director of Moscow's Islamic Human Rights Defense Center.  Oleg Mironov has been a vocal critic of the 1997 Russian law on religion and the war in Chechnya. Mufti Shangareev, who was named a mufti in 1992 in the Orenburg region of Russia, established the Islamic Human Rights Defense Center in 2003, which advocates for the rights of Muslim minorities, as well as the rights of non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries.  Oleg Mironov and Mufti Shangareev are planning a new organization, the Inter-Confessional Human Rights Center.    

WHEN: Friday, April 15, 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

WHERE: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom 
800 N. Capitol Street, NW Suite 790, Washington, DC

Please R.S.V.P. to Caroline Gobble at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or (202)523-3240 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (202)523-3240      end_of_the_skype_highlighting, ext. 24.