USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett. Message from the chair.
USCIRF Commissioners meet with the Honorable David Saperstein, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. January 16, 2015.
USCIRF Policy Analyst Tina Mufford and Burmese civil society and human rights advocate Zin Mar Aung briefed Congressional staffs and NGOs on "Burma: The Ongoing Abuses against Religious and Ethnic Minorities," December 3, 2014.
USCIRF Commissioner Hannah Rosenthal speaks at the 10th Anniversary Commemorative Event of the 2004 OSCE Berlin Meeting on anti-Semitism attended by Ambassador Power and U.S. NGOs, November 14, 2014, Berlin.
USCIRF Commissioner Thomas J. Reese and staff meet with Central African Republic interfaith leaders, November 12, 2014.
USCIRF Chair Katrina Lantos Swett, Commissioner Mary Ann Glendon, and Executive Director Jackie Wolcott with parliamentarians at the launch of the International Parliamentary Coalition to Advance Religious Freedom, November 8, 2014, Oslo.
Dwight Bashir, USCIRF Deputy Director for Policy and Research, speaks at a Stimson Center event on the escalating Shi'a-Sunni conflict, October 28, 2014.
USCIRF Executive Director Jackie Wolcott and policy director Knox Thames meet with Mujeeb-ur-Rahman to discuss religious freedom concerns in Pakistan, October 14, 2014.
USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett with Peter Van Dalen, co-chair of the European Parliament's Working Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief, September 30, 2014.
USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett testifies before a House Oversight & Government Reform Subcommittee on "Protecting International Religious Freedom," September 18, 2014.
In December 2012, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, in conjunction with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and Amnesty International USA, launched the Defending Freedoms Project with the aim of supporting human rights and religious freedom throughout the world with a particular focus on prisoners of conscience.
Specifically, Members of Congress “adopt” prisoners of conscience, standing in solidarity with these brave men and women, while committing to advocate publicly for their release.
Click here to find more information on the Defending Freedoms Project.
Top Row: Agnes Uwimana Nkusi – Rwanda , Saeed Abedini – Iran, Father Nguyen Van Ly – Vietnam
Middle Row: Gao Zhisheng – China, Nabeel Rajab – Bahrain
Bottom Row: Mahvash Sabet – Iran, Asia Bibi – Pakistan, Dawit Issac – Eritrea.
USCIRF Issues its 2014 Annual Report
15th Anniversary Retrospective: Renewing the Commitment
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent federal advisory body the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) created to monitor religious freedom abuses abroad, today released its 2014 Annual Report, and recommended that the State Department add eight more nations to its list of “countries of particular concern,” defined under law as countries where particularly severe violations of religious freedom are tolerated or perpetrated: Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.
USCIRF also recommended that the following eight countries be re-designated as “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan.
Many countries around the world have laws that punish expression deemed blasphemous, defamatory of religion, or contemptuous or insulting to religion or religious symbols, figures, or feelings. The application of these laws has resulted in individuals being jailed for merely expressing a different religious belief or being falsely accused.
In January 2015, USCIRF issued a press release, USCIRF Statement on flogging of Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi. From the press release:
“Raif Badawi was the victim of a cruel and barbaric act carried out by the Saudi justice system – unfortunately, business as usual in the Kingdom. And for nothing more than creating an online forum for diverse views to be expressed freely.”
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has launched the Religious Violence Project to highlight violations of religious freedom abroad. Learn more here.
August 2014 Factsheet: Violence Towards Religious Communities in Pakistan
- Pakistan Leads the World in Blasphemy Prisoners, by Knox Thames and Elizabeth Cassidy for the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs - March 27, 2014
For more persectives, click here.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2014 | USCIRF
WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) strongly condemns the life sentence handed down to respected Uighur Muslim scholar Ilham Tohti for “separatism.” The conditions of his detention and trial as well as his sentence clearly violate international law and call into question China’s claim to be a country based on the rule of law.
USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett testified on September 18 before the National Security Subcommittee of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee at a hearing entitled "Protecting International Religious Freedom."
From the testimony:
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
August 29, 2014 | By Katrina Lantos Swett and Daniel I. Mark
The following op-ed appeared on Investor's Business Daily on August 28, 2014.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 23, 2014 | USCIRF
Statement of Commissioners M. Zuhdi Jasser and Eric P. Schwartz upon completing a five-day visit to Burma.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2014 | USCIRF
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
August 1, 2014 | By Katrina Lantos Swett and Mary Ann Glendon
The following op-ed appeared in The Miami Herald on July 31, 2014.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
July 30, 2014 | By Katrina Lantos Swett and M. Zuhdi Jasser
The following op-ed appeared on RNS on July 29, 2014
While last month marked the 25th anniversary of China’s silencing freedom in Tiananmen Square, this month China has been cementing this grim legacy — particularly regarding religious freedom.
Who We Are
USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world, that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad.
What We're About
Inherent in religious freedom is the right to think as we please, believe or not believe as our conscience leads, and live out our beliefs openly, peacefully, and without fear.
We are about freedom…
Thomas Bill Search