WASHINGTON, DC – At the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Ambassador Jackie Wolcott was appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on March 14.  Ambassador Wolcott will serve a two-year term and succeeds Commissioner Mary Ann Glendon whose term expires on May 14.

“USCIRF welcomes Ambassador Jackie Wolcott as our newest incoming Commissioner,” said USCIRF Chairman Dr. Robert P. George.  “She will be a great asset to our Commission as USCIRF works to fulfill its mandate of highlighting serious threats to religious freedom throughout the world and making policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress on behalf of the cherished right of freedom of religion or belief and its fuller integration into U.S. foreign policy. My fellow Commissioners and I also want to honor outgoing Commissioner Mary Ann Glendon for her outstanding service on the Commission and her passionate commitment to religious freedom.”

Ambassador Wolcott served most recently as USCIRF’s Executive Director from February 2010 through December 2015. Prior to joining USCIRF, the Ambassador had a long career in government executive positions, serving as Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Security Council. Ambassador Wolcott also was Ambassador and United States Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland and Special Representative of the President of the United States for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Ambassador Wolcott served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs. For several years, she had specific responsibility for human rights issues in the United Nations, including international freedom of religion issues. In this capacity, Ambassador Wolcott developed and implemented U.S. strategy at the UN Human Rights Commission, the Economic and Social Council, the Commission on the Status of Women, and all related issues in the UN General Assembly. She also worked on country specific religious freedom issues such as the protection of Baha’is in Iran, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion in North Korea, and the situation in Turkmenistan with regard to compulsory military service affecting objecting religious minorities.

Ambassador Wolcott also worked in the Senate and House, and has held several additional positions relating to national security affairs, including Associate Director for National Security in the Office of Presidential Personnel, The White House; White House Liaison for the Department of State; and Special Assistant for Congressional Affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, Department of State.

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

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the State Department’s decision proclaiming that groups including Yazidis, Christians, and Shi’a Muslims in Iraq and Syria are victims of genocide by ISIL, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also referred to as Daesh.  In his statement, Secretary of State John Kerry rightly observed that: “Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control,” is “genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actions,” and that it “kills Christians because they are Christians; Yezidis because they are Yezidis; Shia because they are Shia.”

“Secretary of State Kerry’s statement today shines an essential light on ISIL’s horrific actions and its extremist ideology, and correctly calls ISIL what it is:  genocidal,”  said USCIRF’s Chairman, Robert P. George.  “We must all stand against ISIL, which seeks to destroy minority religious communities and members of the majority community who do not subscribe to its barbaric interpretation of Islam.  But we must do more.  The U.S. government should seek a referral by the U.N. Security Council to the International Criminal Court to investigate ISIL’s atrocities in Iraq and Syria; work with our international partners to develop measures to protect and assist the region’s most vulnerable, including by increasing immediate humanitarian aid; and increase the number of Syrian refugees resettled to the United States, allocating sufficient resources to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to conduct the necessary vetting so that U.S. national security is not compromised.”

USCIRF called for the U.S. government to designate the Christian, Yazidi, Shi’a, Turkmen, and Shabak communities of Iraq and Syria as victims of genocide by ISIL on December 7, 2015.  USCIRF also has urged that the U.S. government and international community condemn the al-Assad regime for its indiscriminate targeting of primarily Sunni Muslims and for using rape, extrajudicial killings, starvation, sniper attacks, and torture in its attempt to maintain power, and make additional designations of international crimes as warranted.    

“USCIRF continues to urge the Administration to condemn the al-Assad regime in Syria for its brutal persecution and crimes against humanity committed against Sunni Muslims and others,” said Chairman George. “USCIRF also urges the U.S. government to seek a UN referral for an International Criminal Court investigation into crimes the al-Assad regime has committed, following the models used in Sudan and Libya.”

For more information, please see USCIRF chapters in the 2015 Annual report on Iraq and Syria and its press releases on:  USCIRF Statement on the Designation of Victims of Genocide, persecution, and Crimes Against Humanity in Syria and Iraq; and  Syria:  Five Years of Suffering Must End.

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