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July 3, 2012| By Katrina Lantos Swett

The following op-ed appeared in Roll Call on July 3, 2012, 11:46 a.m.

As we prepare to celebrate our Declaration of Independence, we are reminded of its powerful proclamation of freedom.

Freedom includes many things, but at its core is the right to think as we please, believe or not believe as our conscience dictates and live out our convictions openly and peacefully. In other words, freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief is central to who we are.

Yet according to a Pew Research Center study released in August 2011, 70 percent of the world"s people live in countries where religious freedom and related rights are severely restricted. These include some of the most repressive environments in the world.

· In China, religious groups that are not approved by the government - from the Falun Gong to the house church movement - are ruthlessly suppressed, while officials crack down brutally on Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims.

· In Iran, an extremist theocracy detains, tortures and executes those who dissent from its dictates. The government targets reformers among the Shi"a Muslim majority, as well as members of religious minorities, including Sunni and Sufi Muslims, Baha"is, and Christians, and its officials aggressively promote Holocaust denial and other forms of hatred against Jews.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on which I serve has successfully recommended that these and a number of other nations with similar records be designated as "countries of particular concern,” deeming them among the world"s most serious religious freedom violators.

In 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including Article 18, which states the following:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, alone or in community with others, and, in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

In 1966, the governments of 156 countries signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which includes similar words and which the United States ratified in 1992.

Concerned that these agreements were being flouted and that America"s foreign policy was failing to respond, Congress passed and the president signed into law the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998. The law created U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as a religious freedom office with its own ambassador in the State Department.

In taking this action, our country reaffirmed our own Declaration"s insistence that every freedom, including religious freedom, is an unalienable human right. Research also finds that, across the globe, religious freedom is correlated with robust political democracy, diminished tension and violence, and greater prosperity and stability. In contrast, nations that abuse religious liberty are often incubators of intolerance and extremism, poverty and insecurity, and violence and further repression.

Thus, standing for freedom of religion or belief isn"t just a legal or moral obligation, but a practical imperative, one that is tied to our own well-being and that of the world.

This is especially important in the post-9/11 world, where the key to countering terrorism, along with its tyranny and violence, is to persuade people not to become terrorists in the first place. But in order to succeed, we must offer a competing vision of liberty, one that holds open the real promise of a peaceful, prosperous way forward.

Backed by international law and treaty, made indispensable by our critical security needs and supported by our Declaration, the world"s first freedom deserves our steadfast commitment.

Katrina Lantos Swett is chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Please contact Samantha Schnitzer at [email protected] or (202) 786-0613 to interview a USCIRF Commissioner

June 7, 2012| by USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett , President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, was elected on Wednesday June 6 as Chair of the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Dr. Swett was appointed to the Commission in March 2012 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and is serving her first term.

"I'm honored to serve as chair of USCIRF and to work alongside my fellow commissioners in the struggle to guarantee religious freedom for all,” said Dr. Swett. "This Commission has accomplished much, but much is left to be done. We will continue to work with Congress and the Executive Branch, to ensure that this basic human right is a fully integrated component of U.S. foreign, economic and national security policies.”

As the President of the Lantos Foundation, which was founded in 2008, Dr. 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 teaches human rights and American foreign policy at Tufts University. She also served as Deputy Counsel to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee for then-Senator Joe Biden.

Also on June 6, two USCIRF Commissioners were elected Vice-Chairs: The Reverend William J. Shaw , Pastor of the White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia, and Mary Ann Glendon , the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University and President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Rev. Shaw was appointed to the Commission in May 2012 by President Obama and is serving his second term. He is past President of the National Baptist Convention, the largest African American religious organization in the United States. He currently chairs the Board of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and has served as President of The Baptist Ministers" Conference of Philadelphia and Vicinity, The Metropolitan Christian Council of Philadelphia, and the Union Theological Seminary National Alumni Association. From 1981 through 1994, he served as Director of the Ministers" Division of the National Congress of Christian Education.

Professor Glendon, appointed to USCIRF by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in May 2012, is serving her first term on the Commission. She is the former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. Professor Glendon writes and teaches in the fields of human rights, comparative law, constitutional law, and political theory, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1991, the International Academy of Comparative Law, and a past president of the UNESCO-sponsored International Association of Legal Science. She served two terms as a member of the U.S. President's Council on Bioethics (2001-2004), and has represented the Holy See at various conferences including the 1995 U.N. Women's conference in Beijing where she headed the Vatican delegation.

Also serving on the Commission are Elliott Abrams , Dr. Azizah al-Hibri , Sam Gejdenson , Dr. Robert P. George , and Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser .

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 Samantha Schnitzer at [email protected] or (202) 786-0613.