FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127

-EVENT ADVISORY-

Religious Freedom and State Policy in Central Asia

Featuring:

Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service
Eric McGlinchey, Assistant Professor, George Mason University
Catherine Cosman,Senior Analyst, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Chair:

Cory Welt, Deputy Director and Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program,
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Thursday, January 11, 2007
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Center for Strategic and International Studies
1800 K Street N.W., Lower Level, Conference Room B1A

RSVP:Russia and Eurasia Program, CSIS: [email protected] or (202)775-3259

The CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom invite you to a briefing onThursday, January 11, 2007 at 2:00 p.m.on religious freedom and state policy in Central Asia.

Our speakers include three specialists on state and religion in Central Asia: Igor Rotar is a seasoned researcher of religious and ethnic conflict in Eurasia, and has been an analyst and reporter for the Norway-based Forum 18 News Service since 2003. Eric McGlinchey is Assistant Professor of Government and Politics at George Mason University; his areas of research include comparative politics, Central Asian regime change, political Islam, and the effects of Information Communication Technology (ICT) on state and society. Catherine Cosman has served as the Senior Policy Analyst for the OSCE region at USCIRF since 2003; she has also worked at RFE/RL, OSCE, Human Rights Watch, and the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The discussion will be chaired by Cory Welt, CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program Deputy Director and Fellow.

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
January 03, 2007

Contact:
Angela Stephens, Assistant Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 114

WASHINGTON-The sudden death of Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov on December 21 represents an extraordinary opportunity for the United States to encourage desperately needed human rights reforms, respect for the rule of law, and the conduct of fully free and fair elections in the strategic Central Asian republic, one of the world's most repressive states. Such improvements are vital to the protection of human rights and for Turkmenistan's long-term stability.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan federal agency, recommends that the U.S. government insist that the transitional leadership in Turkmenistan act immediately to reverse Niyazov's gross abuses of human rights, including freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief. Since 2000, the Commission has called for Turkmenistan to be designated a Country of Particular Concern by the Department of State due to the Turkmenistan government's consistent and flagrant disregard of its commitments with respect to freedom of religion or belief.

The United States should encourage the new government of Turkmenistan to end Niyazov's personality cult, which had reached the dimensions of a state-imposed religion; halt the government's interference with, and excessive control over, religious activities and organizations; and bring the country's religion law into conformity with Turkmenistan's Constitution and its international legal commitments, particularly Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Commission calls on the White House and the Senate to move quickly to send a new U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan to work with the new Turkmen authorities as they undertake a thorough reform of current laws and practices that undermine freedom of religion and related human rights.

The excesses of the Turkmenistan government under President Niyazov have been widely condemned in UN resolutions and by independent treaty monitoring bodies and experts. In October 2006, the UN Secretary General reported to the General Assembly that "gross and systematic violation of human rights continued ... notwithstanding the gestures made by the [Turkmenistan] government.

The Commission recommendsthat the U.S. government urge the new authorities in Turkmenistan to undertake the following critical reforms with regard to ensuring human rights, democracy, and the rule of law:

• Dismantle the personality cult of former President Niyazov, eliminate the requirement that the Rukhnama-a book of Niyazov's "spiritual thoughts"-be quoted and displayed in mosques, and drop the Rukhnama from the curricula;
• Conduct fully free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections;
• Immediately put an end to the country's practices that repress freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief. These changes include (1) ending harassment and deportation of religious leaders; (2) halting unjust arrest, detention, imprisonment, torture, and residential and workplace intimidation of religious leaders and their adherents; (3) releasing immediately and unconditionally any persons who have been detained solely because of their religious beliefs, practices, or choice of religious association, including Nazrullah ibn Ibadullah, the country's former chief mufti; and (4) investigating all cases of reported harassment, raids, and destruction of houses of worship, and holding those responsible to account.
• Adopt thorough reform of the country's policies toward religion, including ending state interference in the selection, training, and management of religious communities, including those of Sunni and Shia Muslims and the Russian Orthodox Church, and Protestant and other minority communities, and ensure freedom of religion or belief for every individual; dropping imprisonment or fines of individuals who engage in unregistered religious activities; allowing children to receive religious education; allowing the publication and distribution of religious literature inside Turkmenistan; and permitting freedom of movement for individuals, including members of all religious communities.
• Invite the 10 experts of the UN Special Procedures on Human Rights, in response to their longstanding requests for visits, and answer the outstanding communications they have sent regarding specific alleged violations. These experts include the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, as well as special procedures (rapporteurs, working groups, etc.) on Freedom of Expression; Torture; Extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Independence of the Judiciary; the Right to Education; Right to Health; Internally Displaced Persons; Human Rights Defenders; and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. In addition, invite representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE's) Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Turkmenistan should provide the full and necessary conditions for such visits.

The Commission further recommendsthat, in the longer term, the U.S. government conduct a full review and evaluation of its international programs to ensure that the advancement and promotion of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Turkmenistan including the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief is a top strategic policy priority. Among the elements that could be adopted or expanded are the following:

• Increase radio, Internet, and other broadcasts of objective news and information, including educational topics, human rights, freedom of religion, and tolerance;
• Develop programs to encourage effective civil society groups that protect human rights and promote religious freedom;
• Increase exchange programs, including civil society leaders, students, and others concerned with human rights;
• Expand dissemination of information about human rights and democratic freedoms, including through "American corner" reading rooms in various regions;
• Expand "train-the-trainer" legal assistance programs for representatives of religious communities to act as legal advisers in the registration process;
• Specify freedom of thought, conscience, and religion as a grants category and area of activity in the Democracy and Conflict Mitigation program of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Democracy Commission Small Grants program administered by the U.S. Embassy.

The Commission recommends that the U.S. government also support the following actions in international bodies with regard to Turkmenistan:

• Expand the activities of the OSCE Center in Ashgabat, particularly in regard to human rights, tolerance, and freedom of religion or belief, including programs with local schools, universities and non-governmental organizations. The Commission welcomes the recent statement by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office to the new leadership in Turkmenistan offering assistance.
• Encourage the new government of Turkmenistan to abide by the numerous recommendations of the October 2006 Report of the UN Secretary General on the Situation of Human Rights in Turkmenistan, and the conclusions of the independent treaty bodies to which Turkmenistan has formally reported.

Protecting Iraq's religious minorities
The Washington Times, December 22, 2006
By Felice D. Gaer and Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

Since 2003, more than 1.5 million Iraqis have fled their country, and a similar number are displaced within Iraq - a massive flight of more than one in 10 members of Iraq's prewar population of 26 million. This exodus has not only caused tragic hardships and uncertainty, but could mean the end of the presence in Iraq of ancient Christian and other religious minority communities that have lived on that land for 2,000 years.

Amid the widely publicized cycle of Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian violence in Iraq, members of non-Muslim religious minorities continue to suffer a disproportionate burden of violent attacks and other human-rights abuses. Minority communities, including Christians, Yazidis and Sabean Mandaeans, have been forced to fend for themselves, and are particularly vulnerable given their lack of a tribal or militia structure to provide for their security. The repeated targeting of Iraqi religious minorities in coordinated bombing attacks and other violence has forced many worshippers to cease attending religious services or participating in religious events. Moreover, they face a continuing climate of impunity.

As a result of these attacks, Iraqi ChaldoAssyrians and Sabean Mandaeans are fleeing Iraq in numbers disproportionate to their size. While they constitute less than 3 percent of the Iraqi population, they represent approximately 40 percent of those who have fled Iraq seeking refugee status over the past three years, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Numbering at least 100,000, these refugees are dispersed today in Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Lebanon.

In the countries to which they have fled, their welcome is wearing thin. Iraqi refugees live in fear that they have no legal protection and no work opportunities in the countries where they have sought refuge, and are vulnerable to forced repatriation.

When a delegation of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom visited Turkey last month, we met with representatives of Iraqi ChaldoAssyrian refugees who spoke despairingly about their feelings of abandonment by the international community. Moreover, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has not even acted to assess their claims of religious persecution. They spoke to us of religious leaders being targeted for execution, and of churches being burned and threats posted on Christian homes. Even the trades in which many Christians have long worked in Iraq without problem, including hair salons and the sale of alcohol, have made them targets of extremists who say these activities are against Islam. They report that groups fighting the United States in Iraq are associating Christian Iraqis with the United States and treating them as an internal enemy.

In October, UNHCR acknowledged that recent developments in Iraq have "necessitated a reassessment" of its work and priorities of providing assistance to the tens of thousands of Iraqis "who are now fleeing their homes every month" in a "steady, silent exodus." According to UNHCR, those who have managed to flee Iraq increasingly "are becoming dependent and destitute."

Despite this grave situation, the United States has not made direct access to the U.S. Refugee Program available to Iraq's religious minorities.

The State Department has indicated its willingness to take referrals from UNHCR, but UNHCR has not conducted refugee status determinations for Iraqis. This means that Iraqis fleeing persecution in their home country are being denied international protections to which they are entitled as legitimate refugees.

The United States should create new or expand existing options, independent of UNHCR, for allowing members of Iraq's ChaldoAssyrian and Sabean Mandaean religious minority communities to access the U.S. refugee program. It should also urge UNHCR to assess all claims from Iraqi asylum seekers without delay.

Thousands of Iraqis are suffering and fleeing their country, and refugee protections should be available to all of them. Iraq's Christian and other religious minority communities are particularly vulnerable, and UNHCR, the United States and other nations must recognize their special circumstances and address their needs. Surely countries can make "room at the inn" for these vulnerable people so badly in need of help.

Felice D. Gaer chairs the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and is director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee. Commissioner Charles J. Chaput is the archbishop of Denver.