Nury Turkel Elected as Chair of Bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Abraham Cooper as Vice Chair

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today unanimously elected Nury Turkel as its Chair to lead the Commission for 2022-2023. USCIRF Commissioners also unanimously elected Abraham Cooper as its Vice Chair.

“I am truly honored to be elected as Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and privileged to lead the Commission as we work towards addressing threats to freedom of religion and belief around the world – a fundamental human right,” USCIRF Chair Turkel stated. “This bipartisan group of USCIRF Commissioners brings a range of complementary experiences and shared commitment to the promotion of religious freedom of all faiths, including those who choose not to practice a belief. I look forward to working with Vice Chair Cooper and my fellow Commissioners in urging the White House, State Department, and Congress to implement USCIRF’s policy recommendations.”

Chair Turkel was the first Uyghur American appointed to the Commission by House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in May 2020 and was reappointed in May 2022. He has participated in many USCIRF-sponsored hearings, meetings, and delegations, including travel to Uzbekistan. Chair Turkel is a lawyer, foreign policy expert, and human rights advocate. He is the Chairman of the Board for the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Vice Chair Cooper was recently appointed to the Commission by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He is the Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a leading Jewish human rights organization with more than 400,000 family members. He is also a founder of the Global Forum on Anti-Semitism. An acknowledged expert on online hate and terrorism, he regularly meets with world leaders to defend the rights of the Jewish people, combat terrorism, and promote multi-faith relations worldwide.

“I am eager to work more closely with Chair Turkel and my colleagues to advance international religious freedom, especially as we are witnessing a surge of religious communities targeted by foreign governments and nonstate actors,” USCIRF Vice Chair Cooper added. “USCIRF will remain a strong advocate for these communities and will work closely with U.S. government officials to keep religious freedom a top foreign policy priority.”

Also serving on the Commission are David Curry, Frederick A. Davie, Sharon Kleinbaum, Stephen Schneck, Eric Ueland, and Frank Wolf.

Read the full Commissioner biographies here.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected]. 

USCIRF Welcomes European Court Judgment Against Russia on Jehovah’s Witnesses

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment issued on June 7 that found Russia violated freedom of thought, conscience, and religion—among other rights—through the government’s sustained and increasingly brazen campaign against Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Russian Supreme Court banned Jehovah’s Witnesses as an “extremist” organization in 2017 and since then has regularly raided, detained, arrested, and imprisoned Jehovah’s Witnesses on groundless criminal charges.

“We applaud the European Court’s decisive ruling on the Russian government’s inexplicable repression of Jehovah’s Witnesses through its various bans on their activities and religious literature. USCIRF reiterates the Court’s call on Russia to bring an immediate end to its prosecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses and to release all those it has unjustly imprisoned,” stated USCIRF Vice Chair Nury Turkel. “We urge the U.S. government and international community to continue speaking out against Russia’s repression of religious communities.”

USCIRF has repeatedly highlighted the religious freedom violations that Russia has committed, including those against Jehovah’s Witnesses. In March, USCIRF warned about the potential for the expansion of Russia’s religious oppression in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s latest invasion and published a Backgrounder further detailing religious freedom conditions under Russia. On May 21, the Russian government sanctioned USCIRF Vice Chair Nury Turkel and former USCIRF Commissioners along with many other American citizens in retaliation to the “ever-expanding U.S. sanctions on Russian political and public figures, as well as representatives of domestic businesses.”

“USCIRF will never be intimidated to stop highlighting the violation of religious freedom around the world, including the Russian government’s myriad religious freedom violations. We will not cease advocating for the many religious prisoners of conscience that remain incarcerated by Russia to this day,” added USCIRF Commissioner Abraham Cooper.

In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended the U.S. government redesignate Russia as a “Country of Particular Concern,” or CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. In November 2021, the U.S. Department of State designated Russia as a CPC for the first time.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected]. 

USCIRF Delegation Travels to Nigeria to Assess Religious Freedom Conditions

Washington, DC – United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Commissioner Frederick A. Davie along with USCIRF staff traveled to Abuja, Nigeria from June 4-11 to meet with Nigerian and U.S. government officials, religious communities, civil society representatives, and human rights defenders to assess religious freedom conditions and discuss threats facing Nigerians of a range of faiths and worldviews.

“Nigeria is home to diverse religious and belief communities, and we were fortunate to learn from an array of perspectives about the state of religious freedom in the country. Our meetings highlighted the complexity of the drivers of violence in Nigeria and the intersection of religious freedom and other security and human rights concerns,” USCIRF Commissioner Davie said. “USCIRF looks forward to incorporating the findings from this visit into our foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress relating to religious freedom in Nigeria.”

Leading up to and during USCIRF’s visit, several incidents of violence impacting Christians or Muslims took place in Nigeria. On May 12, a violent mob at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Muslim-majority Kano state stoned Christian university student Deborah Samuel to death and burned her body because they considered remarks she made in a WhatsApp thread insulting to Islam. On May 22, violent actors in the Christian-majority southeast killed pregnant Muslim Hausa woman Harira Jubril and her four children. On June 4, a violent mob in the capital city of Abuja beat, stoned, and burned Muslim local defense force member Ahmad Usman to death for alleged blasphemy. On June 5, armed assailants attacked worshippers celebrating Pentecost Sunday in a Catholic church in Owo, Ondo state, killing at least 40 people.

“USCIRF condemns these attacks and all violence that threatens religious freedom in Nigeria. These incidents were truly horrific and demonstrated the challenges facing Christians and Muslims in Nigeria,” USCIRF Commissioner Davie continued. “Our hearts go out to the families and communities impacted and we implore the Nigerian authorities to spare no expense in bringing the perpetrators of these heinous acts to justice.”

Since 2009, most recently in its April 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF has recommended that the U.S. Department of State designate as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of international religious freedom. Local authorities have imprisoned and prosecuted several Nigerians on charges of blasphemy in recent years while pursuing at most only minor charges against individuals who incite violence against those who express opposing religious views. Government officials also continue to fail to provide justice to victims of attacks on worshippers and religious communities. USCIRF also catalogued these violations in other reports on Nigeria, including in an Issue Update on Kano State, an episode of the USCIRF Spotlight podcast, and during a hearing held in June 2021.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion or belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected].