FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 11, 2001

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

Firuz Kazemzadeh, Ph.D., of Alta Loma, California, and the Rev. Charles R. Stith of Boston, Massachusetts, have been appointed by Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The two will serve until May 14, 2003. Dr. Kazemzadeh served on the Commission from May 15, 1999 to May 14, 2001.

Commissioner Kazemzadeh, the Commission's outgoing Vice Chairman, is a Senior Advisor for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States. He was appointed to his first term on the Commission by President Clinton. He is Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University, having taught Russian history there from 1956 until his retirement in 1992. During his tenure at Yale, Dr. Kazemzadeh also served variously as Director of Graduate Studies in Russian and Eastern European Studies; Chair of the Committee on Middle Eastern Studies; Director of Graduate Studies in History; and Master of Davenport College. He is the author of several books relating to Russia and Central Asia.

Commissioner Stith served as United States ambassador to Tanzania from 1998 to January 20, 2001. He is the founder of the Organization for a New Equality, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for people historically excluded from the economic mainstream. Ambassador Stith served as senior minister of the Union United Methodist Church in Boston and was a member of the President's special delegation to monitor South Africa's first multiracial elections. He received a bachelor's degree from Baker University and graduate degrees from the Interdenominational Theological Center and Harvard University Divinity School.

The Commission consists of nine voting Commissioners and the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, who is a non-voting member. Three Commissioners are selected by the President, two by the leaders of the President's party in Congress, and four by the congressional leaders of the other party. Commissioners serve for a two-year term and are eligible for reappointment. Dr. Kazemzadeh and Ambassador Stith join Dean Michael Young, who was appointed by Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, and Nina Shea, who was appointed by Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert.

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." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2001

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WHAT: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom will testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on its 2001 Annual Report. Commissioners Nina Shea, Michael Young, and former Commissioners Firuz Kazemzadeh and David Saperstein will testify. (The Commissioners' terms expired on May 14; Commissioners Shea and Young have been reappointed to another term.)

WHEN:Tuesday, June 5, 2001 at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE:Senate Dirksen Office Building, Room 419

BACKGROUND:The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued its second Annual Report on May 1 containing policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. The Annual Report addresses religious-freedom issues in almost two dozen countries, with individual recommendations on the following: China, India, Indonesia, Iran, North Korea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, Vietnam, access to U.S. capital markets, and U.S. foreign assistance. An Addendum to the Annual Report, issued May 14, addresses Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Annual Report and Addendum are available on the Commission'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." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 30, 2001

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom today released the text of a May 14 letter to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell asking him to raise religious-freedom issues with Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar when the latter visits Washington June 18-20, 2001. Following is the text of the letter:

May 14, 2001

Dear Secretary Powell:

On behalf of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, I urge you to raise in your meeting next month with Pakistan's foreign minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, the need to promote and protect religious freedom in Pakistan.

Over the last year, the Commission has looked closely at the conditions of religious freedom in Pakistan. In September 2000, the Commission held a public hearing on religious freedom and U.S. policy in Pakistan at which it heard the testimony of witnesses from the region as well as academic experts and a former U.S. diplomat. In December 2000, Commission staff traveled to Pakistan and held numerous meetings with government officials, representatives of religious communities, religious political parties, non-governmental human rights organizations, legal advocates, religious scholars, journalists, humanitarian aid workers, as well as U.S. and other foreign diplomats in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, and Chenab Nagar (formerly known as Rabwah, the center of the Ahmadi community).

Although the government of Pakistan does not appear to be engaged in a systematic effort to persecute religious minorities, it is clearly not doing enough to protect the religious freedom of all of its citizens. Members of the Ahmadi religious community are prevented by law from engaging in the full practice of their faith. Religious minority groups (including Christians, Ahmadis, and Hindus) complain that they are politically marginalized by a system of separate electorates, and that this system exacerbates other religious-freedom problems. The criminal laws against blasphemy are abused, resulting in detention of and sometimes violence against religious minorities as well as Muslims on account of their religious beliefs. Finally, organized groups of religious extremists among Sunni and Shiite Muslims engage in a significant level of sectarian violence.

General Pervaiz Musharraf, who took power in a military coup in October 1999, announced early in his tenure that his government would address some of these problems. Unfortunately, his government has, so far, failed to live up to many of the expectations that it had raised. Moreover, it has been criticized in Pakistan for capitulating to, and thus emboldening, political and other societal forces that advocate policies antagonistic to the protection of religious freedom for all Pakistanis and the equal citizenship of all religious communities.

In light of the circumstances in Pakistan, the Commission recommends that you urge Mr. Abdul Sattar to make serious and sustained efforts to promote and protect the religious freedom of all the citizens of Pakistan, including:

• to remove the system of separate electorates for religious minorities in Pakistan, which is inconsistent with democratic principles and the protection of political rights without discrimination on the basis of religion;

• to rescind laws that effectively criminalize the public practice of the Ahmadi faith in violation of the right to freedom of religion guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

• to implement procedural changes to the blasphemy laws that will reduce and aim at ultimately eliminating their abuse;

• to establish and support mechanisms of interfaith dialogue that encompass all religious communities in Pakistan, and to facilitate widespread dissemination of the work and findings of this dialogue; and

• to take effective steps to prevent sectarian violence and punish its perpetrators, including disarming militant groups and any religious schools that provide weapons training.

We hope that Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar's visit to Washington provides an occasion for a serious discussion of religious freedom, tolerance, and sectarian violence in Pakistan.

Respectfully,

Elliott Abrams

Chairman

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." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />