Wednesday, September 19, 1:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 138

OBJECTIVES

Although observers have watched Iraq's cycle of sectarian violence with growing alarm, neither governments nor the media have considered the threat this violence poses to Freedom of Religion, Conscience and Belief. Scholars and policy makers have been similarly slow to investigate connections between religious identity, religiously-motivated atrocities and Iraq's burgeoning refugee crisis. This hearing will investigate both policy challenges, as well as trelationship between them.

Like the Commission's July hearing on Iraq's minority religious communities, this forum is the first of its kind. More significantly, the hearing provides Commissioners with an opportunity to highlight the importance of their recent refugee policy recommendations, many of which now appear in refugee reform legislation currently before Congress.

1:00 OPENING REMARKS

Mr. Michael Cromartie
Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

1:05 PANEL I: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF SECTARIAN VIOLENCE

Dr. Kenneth Katzman
Senior Specialist in Middle East Affairs
Congressional Research Service

Dr. Judith Yaphe
Distinguished Research Fellow
Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University

1:45 PANEL II: U.S. REFUGEE POLICY

Hon. Ellen Sauerbrey
Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State

Hon. Anne Convery
Acting Deputy Director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, U.S. Agency for International Development

2:30 PANEL III: IRAQ'S BURGEONING REFUGEE CRISIS

Ms. Judy Cheng-Hopkins
Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Ms. Dana Graber Ladek
Iraq Displacement Specialist, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

3:30 CLOSE