FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 29, 2007

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

WASHINGTON-A delegation from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan federal agency, returned earlier this month from a nine-day official visit to Saudi Arabia. The delegation, led by Commission Chair Felice D. Gaer, raised issues concerning the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief in the Kingdom that affect both Saudi citizens and the large population of foreign workers, as well as others overseas.

The delegation visited three distinct regions of the country in order to hear differing viewpoints: Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province. Among the Commission's interlocutors were Saudi government officials including the Minister of Islamic Affairs, the Minister of Culture and Information, and deputy ministers from the Interior and Foreign Affairs Ministries, members of the government's newly established National Human Rights Commission and of the non-governmental National Society for Human Rights, as well as legal experts, educators, community leaders, women's rights advocates, and journalists. The Commission regrets that the Saudi government did not grant requests for meetings with top officials at key agencies such as the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice (CPVPV) and the Ministries of Education and Justice.

"We appreciated the opportunity to visit different parts of the country and express our concerns. We are disappointed, however, that many officials with whom we sought to meet were not available for discussion," Gaer said.

The delegation's discussions focused on:

• halting the dissemination of intolerance literature and extremist ideology;

• reform of school textbooks and curricula to remove language encouraging intolerance, hatred, or violence on the basis of religious differences whether dealing with Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus or others;
• protecting the right of private worship;

• curbing harassment of religious practice by the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice; and

• empowering the National Human Rights Commission.

The delegation also explored:

• Saudi government efforts to institute political and social reforms, including through the National Dialogue Centers initiated by King Abdullah;

• the establishment of indigenous human rights institutions;

• the government's efforts to combat religious extremism;

• religious freedom restrictions and discrimination affecting followers of different schools of thought within Islam;

• limitations on the universal human rights of women; and

• freedom of expression, including on religiously sensitive issues in the press and other media.

The Commission was informed of some institutional movement by the Saudi government to address human rights violations. Also, the issue of abuses by the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, known as the mutawaa or religious police, received unprecedented exposure in the Saudi media while the delegation was visiting. The government has recently opened multiple investigations into alleged violations by members of the CPVPV, and at least two cases are going to trial.

On the eve of the USCIRF visit, the National Society for Human Rights published its first ever report, which calls for wide-ranging improvements in human rights practices in the Kingdom.

The Saudi government's Human Rights Commission, which investigates complaints from private citizens and has raised cases with government agencies, has now been operating in earnest for approximately six months. The Human Rights Commission has publicly committed itself to take up the issue of religious discrimination.

The delegation voiced many concerns in meetings with Saudi officials. Since 2004, the Secretary of State has designated Saudi Arabia as a Country of Particular Concern for its systematic and egregious violations of religious freedom. The Commission's concerns are laid out in the chapter on Saudi Arabia in its most recent Annual Report, which was issued on May 2.

Because the delegation could not meet with a number of key government officials and did not receive answers to several of the questions it posed in Saudi Arabia, the Commission has forwarded a list of follow-up queries to the Saudi Embassy in Washington in hopes of receiving further information and continuing to clarify the status of these issues. Later this summer, the Commission plans to issue a detailed report of its findings from the trip. In the meantime, it urges the U.S. government to remain closely and continually engaged in a candid discussion of religious freedom issues with the Saudi government.

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.

Eye on Pakistan
Washington Times, June 21, 2007
By Felice D. Gaer and Michael Cromartie

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met this week in Washington with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri, underlining U.S. support for the Pakistani government. Ironically, while the United States is working with Pakistan as part of its broader national security strategy to combat terrorism, the Pakistani government has not only cut a deal with radical Islamist parties, but also perpetuated abuses of religious freedom and other human rights of its citizens, strengthening the very extremists who incite participation in terror activity. Additionally, Pakistan reportedly has provided safe haven to Taliban leaders and fighters who cross into Afghanistan.

It's not just Afghanistan that stands to suffer, of course, but Pakistanis themselves. The alliance between the Musharraf government and the Muttahida Majlis-e-Ammal, a coalition of six Islamist political parties, gives inordinate influence to these extremist groups and has seriously compromised freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief in Pakistan. The Pakistani government commits abuses in the form of laws violating the rights of the Ahmadis, a minority community of heterodox Muslims, the persistent sectarian violence targeting Shi'ite Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Ahmadis, and the Hudood ordinances, which violate the rights of women in Pakistan.

Among the most persistent and insidious instruments of abuse of religious human rights and civil liberties are Pakistan's blasphemy laws, used to punish anyone who has allegedly defamed Islam. Prescribed criminal penalties for blasphemy include life imprisonment and the death penalty. Blasphemy allegations, which are commonly false, result in the lengthy detention of, and sometimes violence against, Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus and members of other religious minorities, as well as Muslims on account of their religious beliefs. Because they neither require proof of intent nor carry any penalty for leveling false allegations, the blasphemy laws are easily used as tools of intimidation and revenge. Often those acquitted of blasphemy have been forced into hiding due to fears of vigilante violence. According to media reports, a Pakistani blasphemy suspect was stabbed to death on his way to court in police custody a year ago, the day after a mob killed a schoolteacher trying to save a blasphemy suspect under attack.

Just last month, a court in Lahore passed a death sentence on Younis Masih, a Christian who has been imprisoned for nearly two years. According to reports from a number of Pakistani and international non-governmental organizations, Mr. Masih angered a group of Muslims by expressing concern about the noise level of their gathering at a time when his nephew had died and his body was lying at home. They later accused Mr. Masih of making derogatory remarks about Islam, which, under Pakistani law, constitutes blasphemy.

The sentence against Mr. Masih was followed quickly by another blasphemy allegation against a group of Christian nurses in a hospital in Islamabad. They were accused of drawing lines through some Koranic verses on a hospital notice board, despite the fact that no one saw them do it and one of the people accused was on leave at the time. Another Christian, Martha Bibi, was charged under the blasphemy laws in January.

At least five Ahmadis are in prison on blasphemy charges, according to the State Department. In the past year, even those attempting to defend people accused of blasphemy have themselves been threatened.

The laws' harm is compounded by the lack of due process. Although these laws were amended in October 2004 to reduce charges applied in malice by stipulating that only a senior police official can bring the indictment, the procedural changes have not had a significant effect on the way the blasphemy laws are exploited in Pakistan.

The Pakistani government has also extended its blasphemy laws into the international arena. In March, Pakistan again presented a resolution at the new U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva supporting measures to halt the "defamation of religions." The resolution's backers claim that their aim is to promote religious tolerance but in practice, such laws routinely criminalize and prosecute what is deemed - often arbitrarily - to be "offensive" or "unacceptable" speech about a particular religion. Regrettably, the resolution again passed the council.

Potentially even harsher than the blasphemy laws is a proposed bill currently before a parliamentary committee that would impose the death penalty for apostasy, which includes converting from Islam.

The United States should clearly and unequivocally press Pakistan to decriminalize blasphemy and meanwhile implement procedural changes to the blasphemy laws that will reduce and ultimately eliminate their abuse.

The Pakistani government must ensure that those accused of blasphemy and their defenders are given adequate protection, including by investigating death threats and other actions against them carried out by militants, and that full due process is followed in investigations and criminal proceedings.

Finally, the United States should urge the Pakistani government to take more serious steps to combat Islamic extremism in the country.

Repressive measures including Pakistan's abuse of blasphemy laws exacerbate religious tension, violate the rights of Pakistanis and fuel extremism. They have no place in a country the United States considers an ally.

Felice D. Gaer is director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights and chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Michael Cromartie is vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a vice chairman of the commission.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2007

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

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan federal agency, has sent a letter requesting that President Bush candidly address Vietnam's worsening human rights conditions in his meeting this week with Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet.

"Continued arrests of free speech, democracy and religious freedom advocates will further isolate Vietnam from the international community and harm the positive trajectory of U.S.-Vietnamese relations," Commission Chair Felice D. Gaer wrote in the letter, which was sent Wednesday.

Presidents Bush and Triet are set to meet at the White House on Friday during a visit reflecting growing ties between the two countries. But the Commission notes that Vietnam's progress toward improved religious freedom and other human rights practices has stalled recently: In addition to detentions and arrests of democracy and human rights advocates, various restrictions have been imposed on members of religious communities in Vietnam, targeting ethnic minority Protestants, Khmer Buddhists, Hoa Hao Buddhists, Vietnamese Mennonites, and the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam.

"Contravening Vietnamese and international law, the Vietnamese government views peaceful advocacy for legal and political reforms, as well as religious freedom, as national security threats," Gaer wrote in the letter. "This is not a firm foundation on which to proceed with normal bilateral relations with the United States or any other country."

Following is the full text of the letter:

June 20, 2007

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington DC, 20005

Dear Mr. President,

Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet's visit to the White House this week offers an opportunity to throw a spotlight on the deteriorating human rights conditions that are marring the U.S.-Vietnamese relationship.

In your Prague speech on democracy-building earlier this month, you said that the lesson of recent history is that "freedom can be resisted, and freedom can be delayed, but freedom cannot be denied." The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom recommends that you convey that message directly to President Triet. Continued arrests of free speech, democracy and religious freedom advocates will further isolate Vietnam from the international community and harm the positive trajectory of U.S.-Vietnamese relations.

Since its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Jan. 11, 2007, the Government of Vietnam has detained democracy, labor, legal reform, free speech, labor, religious freedom and other human rights advocates. Over 30 individuals have been arrested and detained. The most enduring image of the current crackdown is the video of security agents physically silencing Father Nguyen Van Ly during his trial. Several others, including lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Li Thi Cong Nhan, were sentenced on similar charges.

The cases of Fr. Ly, Nguyen Van Dai, and Li Thi Cong Nhan, in particular, have important implications for religious freedom in Vietnam. Religious leaders and religious freedom advocates have become prominent voices in Vietnam's dissident community. They have founded free speech, democracy, and human rights organizations.

Both Fr. Ly and Nguyen Van Dai were arrested and convicted under charges related to "propagandizing against the state" and "collecting evidence of Vietnam's religious persecution" to send to "enemy powers and overseas reactionaries." Contravening Vietnamese and international law, the Vietnamese government views peaceful advocacy for legal and political reforms, as well as religious freedom, as national security threats. This is not a firm foundation on which to proceed with normal bilateral relations with the United States or any other country.

The United States designated Vietnam as a "country of particular concern" in 2004. It lifted the CPC designation in November 2006 citing measurable progress-a position the Commission thought premature. Recently, progress has stalled, and in the past year there have been additional arrests, short-term detentions, harassment, and other restrictions on members of religious communities in Vietnam, targeting ethnic minority Protestants, Khmer Buddhists, Hoa Hao Buddhists, Vietnamese Mennonites, and the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam.

Past dialogue on religious freedom conditions proved productive. The Commission urges you to persuade President Triet to resume that dialogue and to improve conditions for Vietnam's diverse religious communities.

The Commission also recommends that you discuss with President Triet ways to improve human rights protections in Vietnam in the long term, including:

• lifting remaining restrictions on religious practice;
• accounting for hundreds of individuals arrested after peaceful 2001 and 2004 demonstrations; and
• creating technical assistance programs to bolster in-country refugee processing, create new economic development programs for ethnic minorities, and help Vietnam meet its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The Commission also recommends that U.S. assistance programs in Vietnam be designed to help Vietnam's emerging civil society and help Vietnam meet its obligations under the ICCPR. We request that you pursue agreements with the Vietnamese government to utilize U.S. foreign assistance programs to more effectively integrate Vietnam into the international community.

Mr. President, we urge you to use your meeting with President Triet to underline that it is unacceptable for any respected member of the international community to repress peaceful religious and political dissent. It hurts Vietnam's standing in the world, and it damages the growing relationship between our two countries.

Sincerely,

Felice D. Gaer
Chair

Cc: Stephen Hadley
Ambassador Michael Kozak

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.