FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2014 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, was elected on July 1, 2014 as Chair of the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).  Dr. Swett was first appointed to the Commission in March 2012 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and reappointed in April 2014. 

“I am honored to again serve as chair of USCIRF and work alongside my fellow commissioners in support of religious freedom and belief,” said Dr. Lantos Swett. “Much needs to be done to integrate this fundamental freedom more fully into the foreign policy of our nation because, by any measure, religious freedom is under serious attack across much of the globe.  Given its importance, religious freedom merits a seat at the table with economic and security concerns as the U.S. and other nations conduct their affairs.”

“I also want to thank USCIRF’s immediate past-Chairman, Dr. Robert P. George, and Vice-Chair, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, for their leadership and vision this past year and look forward to continuing our work together in support of the freedom of religion or belief,” concluded Dr. Lantos Swett, who had served as USCIRF Chair in 2012 and USCIRF Vice–Chair in 2013.

As the President of the Lantos Foundation, Dr. Lantos Swett works to carry on the human rights legacy of her father, the late Representative Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress.  Dr. Lantos Swett also teaches human rights and American foreign policy at Tufts University, and has served as Deputy Counsel to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee for then-Senator Joe Biden. 

Also on July 1, two USCIRF Commissioners were elected Vice-Chairs: Dr. Robert P. George and Dr. James J. Zogby.  Dr. George was appointed to the Commission by Speaker of the House John Boehner, and President Barack Obama appointed Dr. Zogby.  

Dr. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, and also is the Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at the University.  He has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and is a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Dr. Zogby is the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community.  He is also Managing Director of Zogby Research Services, which specializes in public opinion polling across the Arab world.

Also serving on the Commission are Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, Mary Ann Glendon, Daniel I. Mark, Thomas J. Reese, Hannah Rosenthal and Eric P. Schwartz.

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and House of Representatives.  USCIRF’s principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2014 | USCIRF

The U.S. Commission on  International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is gravely concerned about the Sudanese government’s arrest of Meriam Ibrahim Ishag on document fraud charges and her being held with her family at a Khartoum police station following their June 24 detention at Khartoum’s airport as they sought to leave the country. USCIRF calls on the Sudanese government to release them immediately and has lodged a strong protest with the Sudanese Embassy in Washington D.C.

“We are very disturbed by these new developments,” said USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George.  “Our chief concern now is for Meriam and her family’s safety, that they be freed, and for their human rights to be fully respected.”

On Monday, June 23, an appeals court cancelled the apostasy charges and death sentence against Meriam and ordered her release from prison.  Meriam, a Christian, was convicted on May 15 of apostasy and sentenced to death by hanging.   Because the court did not recognize her marriage, she also had been found guilty of adultery and sentenced to 100 lashes.  While imprisoned, Meriam give birth on May 27 to a baby girl, Maya, who had been detained with her, along with her two-year-old son Martin. 

Meriam’s conviction, sentencing, detention, and arrest are a travesty for religious freedom and human rights in Sudan. The laws which she was accused of breaking violate Sudan’s own constitutional and international commitments to religious freedom and human rights.

Continued and focused international attention is critical to holding the Sudanese government accountable for its own constitutional provisions and international commitments to protect and respect freedom of religion or belief not only for Meriam, but all Sudanese, regardless of faith, said Chairman George.”

These laws reflect the practices of the Sudanese government which engages in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief.  The government of Sudan imposes a restrictive interpretation of Shari’ah law on Muslims and non-Muslims alike which include, along with charging individuals with the capital crime of apostasy, using amputations against those found guilty of armed robbery, and flogging Sudanese for undefined acts of “indecency” and “immorality.” 

Meriam was arrested on February 17 after her brother reported to the police that she had left Islam to marry a Christian man, a capital crime under Sudan’s 1991 Criminal Code. The Sudanese government’s application of Shari’ah law prohibits a Muslim woman from marrying a Christian man.  While Meriam was born to a Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother, her father left the family when she was six and she was raised a Christian.  As evidence of her Christian faith, Meriam produced her 2011 marriage certificate which identified her as a Christian, and witnesses who tried to testify on her behalf, but court authorities prevented them from speaking. On May 15, Meriam was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy. 

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.
 

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

June 18, 2014 | By Katrina Lantos Swett & Mary Ann Glendon 

The following op-ed appeared in Deseret News on June 18, 2014.

In the Geneva meeting of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that began on June 10 and runs through June 27 are a number of member states which continue to perpetrate or tolerate serious violations of human rights, including religious freedom.

Like some of its older members, five of its 13 new states this year — China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Cuba, and Russia — have been cited by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), on which we serve, for failing to respect or protect this liberty. Their behavior contradicts the Council’s mission of promoting and protecting fundamental rights, including religious freedom. The world community should spotlight this incongruity and support accountability and change.

The United States has rightly designated two new members — China and Saudi Arabia — “countries of particular concern” or CPCs, under the International Religious Freedom Act, ranking them as severe violators. In its annual report, released on April 30, USCIRF recommended, as it has for years, that Vietnam also be named a CPC, and noted significant violations in Cuba and Russia.

Religious freedom conditions in China have continued to deteriorate, particularly for Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims. To inhibit the growth of independent Catholic and Protestant groups, the government has arrested leaders, shuttered churches and selected Catholic bishops without Vatican approval. The Falun Gong and other groups deemed “evil cults” face long-term imprisonments, forced renunciations of faith and torture in detention.

Saudi Arabia still restricts public expression of any religion besides Islam, allowing no non-Muslim houses of worship. Favoring its own interpretation of Sunni Islam, the government arrests and detains Shi’a dissidents and imprisons individuals for apostasy, blasphemy and sorcery.

Vietnam imprisons individuals for religious activity or religious freedom advocacy. Its specialized religious police force and vague national security laws suppress independent Buddhist, Protestant, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai activities. It seeks to halt the growth of ethnic minority Protestantism and Catholicism through discrimination, violence and forced renunciations of faith.

Religious freedom remains a concern in Cuba, despite some improvements for government-approved religious groups, with increased government control over the internal structures of religious communities and pressure to prevent democracy and human rights activists from participating in religious activities.

In Russia, freedom of religion or belief has suffered setbacks along with other human rights. Broad extremism laws are deployed against certain Muslim groups and “non-traditional” religious communities, particularly Jehovah’s Witnesses. Members also experience raids, detentions and imprisonment. Various laws and practices increasingly grant preferential status to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in ways that are inconsistent with religious freedom.

These five new UNHRC members join a Council that already includes other violators.

One example is Pakistan, which we’re recommending again for CPC designation due to its failure to protect Shi’a, Christians, Ahmadis and Hindus from violence and its blasphemy and anti-Ahmadi laws, which foster a climate of impunity.

Another such nation is India, which, despite being a pluralistic electoral democracy, fails to protect religious freedom. While not rising to the level of CPC violator, India’s government has yet to achieve full justice for past communal violence against Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. Further, state-adopted anti-conversion laws fuel intimidation, harassment and violence against Christians and Muslims.

Yet another UNHRC nation with a problematic religious freedom record is Kazakhstan, which rigorously enforces its religion law against unregistered religious activity through police raids, major fines and even psychiatric detention, echoing its Soviet past.

And there is Indonesia, where “religiously deviant” people are arrested and federal and provincial officials fail to counter extremist violence.

For those abused on account of their faith, nothing could be more demoralizing than failing to hold violators responsible. Their presence on the UNHRC makes a mockery of its mission and these states can use the council to oppose the kinds of human rights resolutions that normally would address their misconduct.

Until these nations show signs of genuine progress on human rights, including religious freedom, their UNHRC presence sends an unfortunate message to both friends and foes of freedom. It makes the role of the United States and other supporters of human rights and religious freedom all the more pivotal, not only to address these violations but to stand as witness to them, providing strength and hope to the oppressed.

Katrina Lantos Swett is vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Mary Ann Glendon is a USCIRF commissioner.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.