WASHINGTON, D.C – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today announced the appointment of Erin D. Singshinsuk as USCIRF’s Acting Executive Director.

“USCIRF welcomes Erin Singshinsuk to the Commission as its Acting Executive Director,” said USCIRF Chair Thomas J. Reese, S.J. “While USCIRF searches for a permanent Executive Director, our commission will benefit greatly from her broad and comprehensive understanding of USCIRF’s policy and operational needs. Commissioners look forward to working with her to advance USCIRF’s mission.”

Ms. Singshinsuk has been affiliated with numerous organizations with an international focus including the U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP) where she served as the Vice President for Management and the Chief Financial Officer. She also has provided support for a variety of Federal Agencies including USCIRF, the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), The U.S-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).

USCIRF uses international human rights standards to monitor the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress.

To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0615.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 1, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As President Obama soon will visit Laos to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today urged the President to raise religious freedom concerns in the country. 

“As the first U.S. president to visit Laos, President Obama has a unique opportunity to raise directly religious freedom concerns with the Lao government,” said Chair Thomas J. Reese, S.J. “While Laos has myriad human rights challenges, especially troubling are the policies and decrees at the central and local levels of government that restrict religious practices and undermine not only the Lao constitution but also international human rights standards.”

During a February 2016 visit to Laos, USCIRF staff found a mixed picture. Some religious minority groups reported that their improving relations with the government have given them more space in which to practice their faith.  However, others continue to experience harassment, forced evictions, pressure to renounce their faith, and detention and imprisonment.  The government or a government-aligned body also must give prior approval to most religious activities and practices, including constructing houses of worship, appointing religious personnel, and printing religious materials.

Christians generally experience the most government restrictions and discrimination in this Buddhist-majority nation due to the government’s suspicion of Christianity as “Western” or “American.”  In 2015, local authorities detained or threatened with jail several Christians in Khammouane Province.  And in Luang Prabang Province, assailants stabbed to death a pastor whom local officials repeatedly pressured to stop preaching and spreading Christianity.

USCIRF placed Laos on its Tier 2 list in its 2016 Annual Report. In Tier 2 countries, the violations the government engages in or tolerates are serious and characterized by at least one of the elements of International Religious Freedom Act’s “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” standard. For more information, please refer to the Laos chapter in USCIRF’s 2016 Report (in English and in Lao).

To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0615.

“As the Chinese government aggressively asserts itself on the global stage, at home it aggressively violates the human rights and religious freedom of its citizens,” said USCIRF Chair Thomas J. Reese, S.J. “While these violations have intensified in Zhejiang Province, the location of the G20 Summit, they also are taking place throughout China as the government seeks to repress the voices of individuals and groups advocating for their rights.”

Zhejiang Province is home to a large Christian population. Ahead of the Summit, Chinese authorities cited “safety concerns” to close churches in Hangzhou. They also banned religious activities in hospitals across the province, and reportedly warned underground house churches to cease conducting so-called “illegal” activities.  Since 2013, as part of a campaign targeting “illegal” structures,” the government destroyed more than 1,500 crosses, along with some churches. In other parts of China, the authorities have discriminated against and, at times, violently suppressed, Uighur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists, and harassed and imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners.

The Chinese government also continues its crackdown on people of all faiths and beliefs, including through forcible disappearances, torture, detention, and imprisonment. Prisoners of conscience include: Bao Guohua and Xing Wenxiang, Protestant pastors from Zhejiang sentenced this year to 14 and 12 years’ imprisonment for opposing cross removals; Ilham Tohti, a Uighur Muslim scholar sentenced to life imprisonment for his peaceful advocacy of Uighur rights; and Thabkhe (Thamkey) Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist monk serving a 15-year prison sentence following protests against the government’s repressive rule of Tibet.  Zhiwen Wang, a Falun Gong practitioner who was persecuted and imprisoned for 15 years, was released in 2014, but the Chinese government has prevented him from receiving proper medical care and reuniting with his family in the United States. Gao Zhisheng, a prominent lawyer and human rights activist who was disappeared, tortured, and imprisoned, currently is under strict surveillance and is denied freedom of movement.

USCIRF again recommended in 2016 that China be designated as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act for its particularly severe violations of religious freedom. The State Department has designated China as a CPC since 1999. For more information, see the China Chapter (in English and Chinese) in USCIRF’s 2016 Annual Report. 

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at 202-786-0615 or [email protected].