Russia: Roundtable with Oleg Mironov and Mufti Shangareev

Apr 12, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2005

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is pleased to invite you to an on-the-record briefing on the current status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief in Russia with Oleg Mironov, former and first Human Rights Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, and Mufti Ismagil Shangareev, Director of Moscow's Islamic Human Rights Defense Center. Oleg Mironov has been a vocal critic of the 1997 Russian law on religion and the war in Chechnya. Mufti Shangareev, who was named a mufti in 1992 in the Orenburg region of Russia, established the Islamic Human Rights Defense Center in 2003, which advocates for the rights of Muslim minorities, as well as the rights of non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries. Oleg Mironov and Mufti Shangareev are planning a new organization, the Inter-Confessional Human Rights Center.

WHEN: Friday, April 15, 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

WHERE: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
800 N. Capitol Street, NW Suite 790, Washington, DC

Please R.S.V.P. to Caroline Gobble at  [email protected]  or (202)523-3240

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.

Preeta D. Bansal,Chair
  • Felice D. Gaer,Vice ChairNina Shea,Vice ChairArchbishop Charles J. ChaputMichael CromartieKhaled Abou El FadlElizabeth H. ProdromouBishop Ricardo RamirezMichael K. YoungAmbassador John V. Hanford III,Ex-OfficioJoseph R. Crapa,Executive Director