FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 6, 2000

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WHAT:The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom will hold a press conference to release its report critiquing the implementation of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) and the State Department's second Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. In its report, the Commission assesses the effectiveness of the IRFA process as it has been enforced by the Administration and Congress in its second year. Commission Chairman Elliott Abrams and Commissioner Nina Shea will conduct the press conference.

WHEN:Friday, December 8, 2000 at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE:Room 2200, Rayburn House Office Building

BACKGROUND:One of the guiding purposes and principles behind the IRFA is to make the issue of international religious freedom an integral part of this nation's foreign policy agenda. Many conditions of religious persecution around the world can be alleviated by careful, committed action by the United States. If the IRFA process is working properly and vigorously, much more attention will be paid to the issue of religious freedom as a matter of U.S. foreign policy. With Human Rights Day on Sunday, December 10, the Commissioners will address the effectiveness of the IRFA process and the Administration's handling of this issue as a foreign policy matter. Copies of the report will be available on Friday, December 8 and can be obtained by contacting the Commission's communications department at (202) 523-3240. The report can also be found on the Commission's Web site at www.uscirf.gov.

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." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 21, 2000

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

The Vice Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Firuz Kazemzadeh, today congratulated Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, a Commission member, on his appointment as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, D.C. by Pope John Paul II.

"Archbishop McCarrick has impressed his fellow Commissioners by his gentle nature, clear-mindedness, and strict devotion to the cause of religious freedom for all peoples," Dr. Kazemzadeh said. "I'm sure the Catholic faithful of the Washington archdiocese will quickly come to value those qualities as well."

As a member of the Commission, Archbishop McCarrick has participated in its regular monthly meetings and periodic public hearings and has represented the Commission on trips overseas. He was appointed by Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle (D) of South Dakota under the terms of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which created the Commission. Archbishop McCarrick's two-year term, like that of all Commissioners, expires May 14, 2001, and he is eligible for reappointment.

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." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />

The Washington Post
November 14, 2000

By Elliott Abrams

An amendment signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens the "liquidation" of thousands of religious groups at the end of this year. When President Clinton meets with Putin during the Asia-Pacific economic summit, this issue should be near the top of their bilateral agenda.

In the last days of the Soviet Union, the government enacted the most enlightened law on religion in the history of Russia, providing broad legal protections for the right to exercise religious freedom and for the equality of religious communities. The law restored rights not only to the Russian Orthodox Church but also to Old Believers, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, Seventh-Day Adventists, Muslims, Buddhists and a host of other faith groups that had suffered severe repression since at least 1929.

In the new atmosphere of freedom, thousands of new churches and religious groups were formed, feeding a post-Communist spiritual hunger that pervaded all regions and ethnic groups. Indigenous pastors and clerics headed many existing religious groups, while in others the leaderships had been decimated by decades of communist mistreatment and needed foreign clergy and teachers to help them reestablish themselves. In yet other cases, foreign missionaries, including Western evangelicals and followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, founded new faith communities--legally, and with Moscow's full knowledge.

These days of openness quickly passed, however. The Russian Orthodox Church--nostalgic for the leading position it had held in Russian society before the Bolsheviks--soon pushed for a law to restrict, if not ban, the activities of foreign religious workers and of non-orthodox Christians (as well as dissident Orthodox groups). While President Boris Yeltsin vetoed one egregious bill the Russian parliament sent him, he allowed another version to become law in 1997.

The 1997 Religion Law discriminates among religions and violates Russia's international commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It restricts the rights, powers and privileges of smaller, or newer, or foreign religious communities, while giving special status to Russia's "traditional" religions--primarily Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. It also creates an onerous and intrusive registration process.

Upon taking office this spring, Putin quietly signed a significant and double-edged amendment to the 1997 law. On the positive side, he extended to Dec. 31 of this year the deadline by which religious groups must register with officials. On the negative side, however, he required that unregistered groups be "liquidated" after that date.

If a system of due process were in place for religious groups to register, the situation would not be so dangerous. But quite the reverse is true: Local officials in some regions have delayed or denied registration to and sought liquidation of unpopular religious groups, even when they have been recognized and registered in other regions or at the federal level. Sometimes this delay or refusal occurs at the instigation of the local Russian Orthodox bishop or priest.

The threat of liquidation when the Dec. 31 deadline expires is substantial. At the end of September, according to the Russian Justice Ministry, only some 9,000 of the 17,000 religious groups in Russia had obtained registration. Given the slow pace of the registration process so far, it is hard to believe most of the remaining groups will be able to register by Dec. 31. Putin must intervene--both to speed up the process and to postpone the deadline.

Clinton will meet with the Russian president tomorrow or Thursday on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Brunei. He should stress to Putin how seriously the United States takes the issue of religious freedom and how important it is, both for Russia's future and for U.S.-Russian relations, that he postpone the Dec. 31 deadline and streamline the registration process. It is hard to see a warming trend in U.S.-Russian relations if the holiday season headlines are full of stories about houses of worship about to be shut down or declared illegal, their property seized and their congregations out in the cold legally--and physically as well.

The writer is chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to give independent recommendations to the executive branch and the Congress

© 2000 The Washington Post