FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2005

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released Policy Focus on Uzbekistan a roundtable "Human Rights and Instability in Uzbekistan"at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. USCIRF Commissioner Michael Cromartie represented the Commission and was joined by Robert Templer, Director of the Asia Program at the International Crisis Group, who presented Crisis Group's report, "Uzbekistan: the Andijon Uprising," on recent events in Uzbekistan. The roundtable was chaired by Dr. Martha Brill Olcott, Senior Associate at Carnegie.

Policy Focus on Uzbekistan includes a number of recommendations for U.S. policy. Many of those recommendations were formulated on the basis of a Commission trip to Uzbekistan in October 2004, when the Commission met with Uzbek government officials, human rights activists, religious leaders, and former prisoners in the Ferghana Valley, including in Andijon, as well as in Tashkent and Samarkand.

In April 2005, the Commission recommended to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the State Department designate Uzbekistan as a "country of particular concern," or CPC, in accordance with the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, due to its egregious, systematic, and ongoing violations of religious freedom. CPC designation carries with it the requirement that the U.S. government take specific policy actions, up to and including the cessation of economic and security assistance.

In addition to recommending that Uzbekistan be designated as a CPC, the Commission recommends that:

• U.S. statements and actions should be coordinated across agencies to ensure that U.S. concerns about human rights conditions in Uzbekistan are reflected in all dealings with the Uzbek government;
• U.S. assistance to the Uzbek government, with the exception of assistance to improve humanitarian conditions and advance human rights, should be made contingent upon establishing and implementing a specific timetable for the government to take concrete steps to improve conditions of freedom of religion or belief and observe international human rights standards;
• U.S. security and other forms of assistance should continue to be scrutinized to ensure that this assistance does not go to Uzbek government agencies, such as certain branches of the Interior Ministry and the Justice Ministry, which have been found to be responsible for religious freedom violations; and
• The U.S. government should reinstate Uzbek-language radio broadcasts at the Voice of America (VOA), and should use VOA and other appropriate avenues of public diplomacy to explain to the people of Uzbekistan why religious freedom is an important element of U.S. foreign policy as well as specific concerns about religious freedom in their country.

Policy Focus on Uzbekistan is available on the Commission's web site at www.uscirf.gov and may also be obtained by contacting the Commission's Communications Department at [email protected] or (202) 523-3240, ext. 38.

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
June 1, 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) today released  Policy Focus on Egypt at an on-the-record  event at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. USCIRF Vice Chairs Felice D. Gaer and Nina Shea, and Commissioner Elizabeth Prodromou presented the findings of the Policy Focus and recommendations for U.S. policy. Prominent Egyptian human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim was the commentator.

In its Policy Focus on Egypt, the Commission expresses serious concern about ongoing violations of the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief in Egypt, including widespread problems of discrimination and intolerance against members of minority Muslim, Christian, and other religious communities. These concerns have led the Commission to include Egypt on its Watch List again.

The Commission views the strength of the bilateral relationship and repeated calls for reform by the United States as an opportunity for the two countries to increase cooperation significantly to advance protection for the internationally recognized right to freedom of religion or belief and related human rights as an important aspect of U.S. policy to promote freedom and democracy in the greater Middle East.

Commission recommendations include that the U.S. government should urge the Egyptian government to:

• Establish a timetable and specific steps to be taken to make progress on political and legal reforms. If the deadlines are met in a timely manner, the U.S. government should consider, within the boundaries of its overall aid to Egypt, providing economic assistance to areas where significant progress had been made. If deadlines are not met, the United States should reconsider the dimensions and direction of its economic assistance;
• Shiftde facto responsibility from religious affairs from the state security services, with the exception of cases involving violence, and establish an entity or position (e.g., an ombudsman) in the office of the President to oversee religious affairs in Egypt;
• Allow full access to the constitutional and international guarantees of the rule of law and due process for those individuals charged with violating Section 98 (f) of the Penal Code, which "prohibits citizens from ridiculing or insulting heavenly religions or inciting sectarian strife," instead of having those cases heard by the State Security Courts;
• Repeal the 19th century, Ottoman-era Hamayouni Decree - which requires non-Muslims to obtain a Presidential decree to build a new place of worship - and ensure that all places of worship are subject to the same transparent, non-discriminatory, and efficient criteria and procedures for construction and maintenance;
• More actively investigate societal violence against any individuals or groups on the basis of their religion, particularly the targeting of Coptic Orthodox Christians, to bring those responsible for such violence to justice, and to ensure compensation for those targeted;
• Take all appropriate steps to prevent and punish acts of anti-Semitism, including condemnation of anti-Semitic acts, and, while vigorously protecting freedom of expression, counteract anti-Semitic rhetoric and other organized anti-Semitic activities; and
• Repeal a 1960 presidential decree banning the Baha'i community from practicing their faith.

Policy Focus on Egypt will be available on the Commission's web site at www.uscirf.gov at noon today and may also be obtained by contacting the Commission's Communications Department at [email protected] or (202) 523-3240 (202) 523-3240, ext. 38.

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
May 31, 2005

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders have reappointed three Commissioners to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The Commissioners are Felice D. Gaer, Bishop Ricardo Ramirez, and Nina Shea. The Commission consists of nine voting Commissioners and the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, who is a non-voting, ex officio 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 political party that is not in the White House. Commissioners serve for two-year terms and are eligible for reappointment.

USCIRF Chair Preeta D. Bansal said, "Commissioners Gaer, Ramirez, and Shea have been extremely dedicated to the substantive work of the Commission, and each have contributed in important ways. The Commission will continue to benefit enormously from their expertise, judgment, and perspectives."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reappointed Felice D. Gaer, who is one of the Commission's current Vice Chairs. She is the Director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee. Ms. Gaer is also a member of the Committee Against Torture, a 10-person United Nations expert body that reviews reports by governments on their compliance with the Convention Against Torture, a treaty ratified by over 130 countries. Nominated by the United States and elected in 1999, she is the first American to serve on the Committee. Ms. Gaer was appointed as a public member of nine U.S. delegations to UN human rights negotiations between 1993 and 1999, including the UN Commission on Human Rights, the World Conference on Women, and the World Conference on Human Rights. She is the Vice President of the International League for Human Rights, a member of the steering committee of Human Rights Watch/Eurasia, and a member of the Board of the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Valkill. Ms. Gaer is the author of more than 25 articles on international human right topics. She served as USCIRF Chair from June 2002 to June 2003, and on the Commission's Executive Committee from September 2001 to June 2002.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid reappointed The Most Reverend Ricardo Ramirez, who is currently Bishop of Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1966. Bishop Ramirez was named Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio in 1981, and in 1982 he became the first Bishop of the Diocese of Las Cruces. Bishop Ramirez currently serves as a Member of the New Mexico Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; Member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) International Policy Committee; the Catholic Church Extension Society Board;USCCB Committee on the Liturgy; Member of the Committee on the Catholic Common Ground Initiative; and Consultant of the USCCB Committee on Hispanic Affairs. He has also served as a member of the U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad. He was elected by the U.S. bishops to the Vatican Synod for America in 1997.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert reappointed Nina Shea, also a current Vice Chair. Ms. Shea served as Vice Chair in 2003 as well. She is the Director of the Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House in Washington, D.C. She has been an international human rights lawyer for 25 years and has for 19 years focused specifically on the issue of religious persecution. Ms. Shea helped form and lead a nationwide coalition of religious groups and churches that played an instrumental role in ending a genocidal conflict over religious freedom in southern Sudan, where some 2 million Christian and traditional African believers were killed, with the signing of a peace accord in early 2005. At the Center, she directed a project to collect and analyze Saudi government propaganda fostering religious hatred in the United States. Ms. Shea has organized and sponsored numerous fact-finding missions to Sudan, China, Egypt, and elsewhere and has testified regularly before Congress about the governments of these countries. She is a co-author of a newly-released book on governance by extreme sharia, Radical Islam's Rules, and the author of In the Lion's Den, a book on anti-Christian persecution around the world.

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.