FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 8, 2007

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

WASHINGTON-As the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meets in Madrid this month to decide which member state will serve as its chair in 2009, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom strongly recommends that the United States withhold support from one of the declared candidates: Kazakhstan.

"The OSCE chair should be emblematic of the values of this preeminent trans-Atlantic security and human rights organization," said Michael Cromartie, chair of the Commission. "Yet Kazakhstan's blatant and widespread violations of human rights, including those associated with freedom of religion or belief, make it a poor contender, at least in 2009, to lead the OSCE."

Kazakhstan, which emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union with a relatively stable economy based on extensive oil and gas resources, looked promising 10 years ago. Home to scores of ethnic groups-due, in part, to its role as a place of forced exile for dissenters from Czarist Russia and then the Soviet Union-it was an ethnically and religiously diverse society with a government that encouraged tolerance.

Today, however, the Kazakhstan government has joined other states in the former Soviet Union in placing new restrictions on human rights and civil society. The State Department's 2007 International Religious Freedom Report notes that Kazakhstan's "religious laws narrow the legal protections of religious freedom found in the Constitution." Religious groups must comply with onerous registration requirements; unregistered groups have endured increasing fines, and purportedly "non-traditional" religious groups are often refused permission to register or their applications are substantially delayed. Recently, the government has targeted minority religious groups in spurious criminal cases, and used property disputes as a tool of pressure against the Hare Krishna community.

There are at least 300 political prisoners in Kazakhstan who have been convicted on allegedly religion-related charges, according to leading human rights activists. Most of these prisoners are assumed to be Muslims, but it is impossible to know how many are allegedly tied with extremist organizations and how many are simply devout believers who may dissent from officially favored religious hierarchies. According to the Forum 18 News Service, two Baptist congregations and a Pentecostal one have been caught up most recently in the crackdown on religious practice that has been dubbed Operation Religious Extremism.

The Kazakhstan government also has a deteriorating record on protecting democratic institutions. The OSCE itself pronounced the country's parliamentary elections in August 2007 "neither free nor fair." Recent constitutional amendments have made current President Nursultan Nazarbayev practically president for life, and changes in election law have made it possible only for the pro-presidential party to win seats in parliament. Moreover, for several years the government has cracked down on independent media.

"Against this background, Kazakhstan should not be rewarded with a key leadership role in an organization that is central to promoting the protection of human rights," Cromartie said. "The Commission calls on the U.S. government and other OSCE states to vote against Kazakhstan's bid to be OSCE chair, and to energetically engage the Kazakhstan government in talks on how to significantly improve its record on human rights, including religious freedom, in part so that its bid eventually can be reconsidered."

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 7, 2007

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

WASHINGTON-The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom deplores the fact that, as part of its recently declared state of emergency and suspension of the Constitution and among the many ensuing detentions, the government of General Pervez Musharraf has placed Asma Jahangir, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Religion or Belief, under house arrest. The Commission calls on the U.S. government, at the highest levels, to protest Ms. Jahangir's detention and to urge the government of Pakistan to release her immediately so that she may continue her important work as Special Rapporteur.

The Special Rapporteur is the independent expert who investigates and reports to the UN on violations of the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief around the world. Since its creation in 1986, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur has been an important tool in the international protection of this fundamental freedom. Ms. Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer and human rights defender, has held this mandate since 2004. Ms. Jahangir's sister and fellow lawyer and human rights advocate, Hina Jilani, is also an independent UN human rights expert and reportedly is also the target of an arrest warrant.

The detention order asserts, without providing specifics, that Ms. Jahangir's exercise of her rights of association and expression have been found "prejudicial to public safety and maintenance of public order," and orders that she be arrested and confined to her residence in Lahore for 90 days.

"By placing Asma Jahangir under house arrest, the government of Pakistan not only appears to be violating her individual human rights, but also is interfering with her ability, as a UN Special Rapporteur, to protect and promote the human rights of others," said Commission Chair Michael Cromartie. Over the next three months, the Special Rapporteur had been scheduled to visit Angola and Israel to examine the situation with respect to the freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief in those countries. Later in 2008, she is scheduled to go to India and Turkmenistan; Bangladesh, China, and Iran have agreed in principle to allow her to visit. She has already visited and reported on such countries as Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Azerbaijan.

As one of the members of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN body to which the independent human rights experts report, Pakistan is supposed to "uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights," according to the UN General Assembly resolution that created the Council. "Suspending the Constitution, restricting the media, and arresting judges, lawyers, political party officials, civil society representatives and UN human rights experts hardly seems appropriate for a Human Rights Council member," Cromartie said.

The Commission, an independent, bipartisan federal body, has long raised concerns about the ways in which the Pakistani government severely violates the internationally guaranteed right to religious freedom inside Pakistan. Abuses include the country's blasphemy laws, which commonly involve false accusations and result in the lengthy detention of and violence against Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus, and Muslims on account of their religious beliefs; the laws violating the fundamental rights of the Ahmadi community; the persistent sectarian violence targeting Shi'as, Ahmadis, Hindus, and Christians; and the Hudood ordinances, which violate the rights of women in Pakistan.

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.

Joe Crapa's Funeral, Monday, Oct. 29

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

A funeral service for Joseph R. Crapa, the late Executive Director of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, will be held at 1 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 29, at St. Peter's Church, 313 2nd Street, S.E., Washington D.C.

The Commission office will close at 11 a.m. Monday to honor Joe's memory.

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.