Religious Freedom and State Policy in Central Asia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127

-EVENT ADVISORY-

Religious Freedom and State Policy in Central Asia

Featuring:

Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service
Eric McGlinchey, Assistant Professor, George Mason University
Catherine Cosman,Senior Analyst, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Chair:

Cory Welt, Deputy Director and Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program,
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Thursday, January 11, 2007
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Center for Strategic and International Studies
1800 K Street N.W., Lower Level, Conference Room B1A

RSVP:Russia and Eurasia Program, CSIS: [email protected] or (202)775-3259

The CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom invite you to a briefing onThursday, January 11, 2007 at 2:00 p.m.on religious freedom and state policy in Central Asia.

Our speakers include three specialists on state and religion in Central Asia: Igor Rotar is a seasoned researcher of religious and ethnic conflict in Eurasia, and has been an analyst and reporter for the Norway-based Forum 18 News Service since 2003. Eric McGlinchey is Assistant Professor of Government and Politics at George Mason University; his areas of research include comparative politics, Central Asian regime change, political Islam, and the effects of Information Communication Technology (ICT) on state and society. Catherine Cosman has served as the Senior Policy Analyst for the OSCE region at USCIRF since 2003; she has also worked at RFE/RL, OSCE, Human Rights Watch, and the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The discussion will be chaired by Cory Welt, CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program Deputy Director and Fellow.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.