Jul 25, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 25, 2005
Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240 (202) 523-3240, ext. 27
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expresses serious concern about legislation recently passed by the provincial assembly in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), which borders Afghanistan. If confirmed as law by the provincial governor, the so-called "Hasba" or "Accountability" Act would impose a system of controls on social and religious behavior similar to those under which Afghans suffered during the notorious Taliban regime, thereby threatening the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief and related human rights of millions of both Muslim and non-Muslim Pakistanis. The Commission urges Pakistani national officials to use available legislative as well as judicial and other means to rescind, modify, or otherwise repudiate those portions of the provincial legislation that would contravene Pakistan's human rights obligations under international legal instruments.
"Pakistan's Federal Government, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the political leadership of the NWFP should use this period to consider carefully the legislation's human rights implications and the compatibility of its provisions with Pakistan's obligations under the international human rights instruments and the human rights guarantees in Pakistan's own Constitution," said USCIRF Chair Michael Cromartie. "The Commission also urges the State Department to raise the human rights implications of this legislation with the Pakistani authorities and to encourage Pakistan to rescind, modify, or repudiate this ill-advised measure. The State Department should reinforce Pakistan's obligations to protect the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief of its citizens in the NWFP, in accordance with Pakistan's international human rights commitments."
On July 14, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties that governs the NWFP, passed overwhelmingly and sent to the provincial governor legislation that would establish a system of official monitors who would enforce conformity to the MMA's view of Islamic standards of public behavior. Offices of such monitors or "mohtasibeen" would be established at every level of administration in the NWFP with broad powers to ensure the observance of Islamic religious practices and conformity with Islamic moral values in public places. The mohtasibeen would have quasi-judicial powers to obtain public records, to order the cooperation of other government officials, and to sentence offenders. Decisions of the mohtasibeen would not be reviewable by any court of law.
On the eve of the legislation's passage in the provincial assembly, noted Pakistani human rights advocate Asma Jahangir, who also serves as the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief, declared that "If the Act is passed, the Hasba force will act as chief prosecutor and enjoy wide powers, without any accountability. They will punish, admonish, watch, monitor, and even persecute."
The proposed mohtasibeen and their broad powers are all too reminiscent of the brutal agents of Taliban Afghanistan's Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice and of Saudi Arabia's religious police, the mutawaa. The Commission is concerned that, as in Taliban Afghanistan and in Saudi Arabia, the result in the NWFP would be: (1) a vaguely defined authority to punish conduct which the mohtasibeen identify as not conducive to public morality and safety and which is not reviewable by ordinary judicial authority; (2) arbitrary and harsh punishments of both Muslims and non-Muslims for alleged infractions of public religious practice and social behavior, and (3) restrictions that abridge universal human rights, including freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief and other applicable rules of non-discrimination. The province's women, religious reformers and dissidents, and members of religious minority communities would be at particular risk from a system designed to coerce religious and social conformity. The imposition of such a regime in the NWFP would set an example that could be emulated elsewhere in Pakistan and beyond.
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.
Michael Cromartie, Chair
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Jul 22, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 22, 2005
Contact: Julia Leikin (202) 775-3240
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) invite you to a public briefing on Wednesday, July 27 on "U.S. Strategic Dilemmas in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan." The briefing will take place 3:00-5:00 p.m. in Room B1C on the B1 Conference Level at CSIS, 1800 K Street, NW, Washington, DC.
In April 2005, as part of its 2005 CPC recommendations to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Commission recommended that the State Department designate Uzbekistan a "country of particular concern" (CPC) for serious religious freedom violations.The Commission has recommended CPC status for Turkmenistan since 2001, although the State Department has not adopted that recommendation in past years.CPC designation carries with it the requirement to take follow-on policy actions, which can include the cancellation of economic and security assistance.
To place the CPC recommendation in context, panelists will discuss the human rights situation in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the nature of local extremist and terrorist threats, and U.S. and other strategic interests in the region. The panel will open with introductory remarks by USCIRF Commissioners.
Panelists:
Stephen Blank, Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College
Daniel Kimmage, RFE/RL
Martha Brill Olcott, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Knox Thames, Helsinki Commission
Cory Welt, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Please RSVP by Tuesday, July 26 th, 2005
Julia Leikin ( [email protected] ) or by fax 202-775-3199
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.
Michael Cromartie,Chair
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Jul 20, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 19, 2005
Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27
WASHINGTON - The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the announcement by Secretary Michael Chertoff that he will appoint a Senior Refugee and Asylum Advisor within the newly established Directorate of Policy as part of a re-organization at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Senior Refugee and Asylum Advisor position was the lead policy recommendation made by USCIRF in its Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal, which was released in February. The Study recommended that the Secretary of Homeland Security establish "an office headed by a high level Refugee Coordinator, with authority to coordinate DHS policy and regulations, and to monitor the implementation of procedures affecting refugees or asylum seekers."
"The appointment of a Senior Refugee and Asylum Advisor is an essential first step for DHS to resolve the problems that this bipartisan, independent federal commission identified and to ensure that legitimate asylum seekers will be treated with the dignity, fairness, and consistency which they expect from the United States. We urge that the Advisor be named promptly, and be given the necessary authority and resources to get the job done," said USCIRF Chair Michael Cromartie.
The USCIRF's 500+ pages Study found that Expedited Removal - a process implemented in 1997 to "expeditiously remove" certain improperly documented aliens without a hearing - was intended by Congress to protect the integrity of U.S. borders while also providing protection to bona fide asylum seekers. In practice, however, the Study identified a number of problems which placed legitimate asylum seekers at risk of being returned to countries where they may face persecution. The study also found that bona fide asylum seekers were almost certain to be detained in jail or under jail-like conditions.
The Study concluded that there was no official within Homeland Security - other than the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary - authorized to resolve such problems which arise in the treatment of asylum seekers, particularly those requiring inter-bureau or inter-agency cooperation. The three DHS bureaus involved in Expedited Removal - Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and Citizenship and Immigration Services - have different roles in the process and sometimes have conflicting interpretations of the same laws, regulations, and policies. The Commission recommended that the Secretary appoint a high ranking refugee and asylum coordinator within the Department to address such issues and - among other duties - to facilitate consideration of the findings and recommendations of the Study.
"The Commission met recently with Secretary Chertoff and appreciated the opportunity to raise these issues. We are pleased that he was responsive to the issue of appointing a Senior Refugee and Asylum Advisor to coordinate refugee and asylum issues, and we look forward to continuing a dialogue about the Commission's Study and additional recommendations. We believe we all share the same goal - a system for asylum seekers which is secure, fair, and humane," said Cromartie.
Among other recommendations in the Study, the Report recommended that:
- asylum officers should - in clearly approvable cases - be authorized to grant asylum applications during the expedited removal process, rather than waiting for months for a hearing before an immigration judge;
- the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should establish detention standards which are more appropriate for asylum seekers than the current jail-like conditions under which most asylum seekers are currently detained;
- DHS should promulgate regulations to promote more consistent implementation of established release criteria to ensure that asylum seekers with a credible fear of persecution - and who pose neither a flight nor a security risk - are released from detention;
- the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice should expand existing public-private partnerships to facilitate legal assistance for asylum seekers subject to Expedited Removal, and improve administrative review and quality assurance procedures to improve consistency in asylum determinations by immigration judges; and
- DHS should implement and monitor quality assurance procedures - such as videotaping secondary inspections at ports of entry - to ensure more reliable information for homeland security purposes, and to ensure that legitimate asylum seekers are not turned away in error.
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 authorized the USCIRF to appoint experts to study if the Expedited Removal process is sufficiently protecting legitimate asylum seekers. Congress asked for the Study to examine whether asylum seekers subject to Expedited Removal are being detained improperly or under inappropriate conditions and whether they are being returned to countries where they might face persecution.
The Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal , including its findings and recommendations, can be found on USCIRF's web site at www.uscirf.gov.
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.
Michael Cromartie, Chair
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