USCIRF: Congressional Leaders Reappoint Commissioners Bansal and Prodromou

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 25, 2006

Contact:
Angela Stephens, Assistant Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 14

WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders of the House and Senate have reappointed Commissioners Preeta D. Bansal and Elizabeth H. Prodromou to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

The Commission consists of nine voting Commissioners and the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, who is a non-voting,ex officiomember. Three Commissioners are selected by the President, two by leaders of the President's party in Congress, and four by congressional leaders of the party that is not in the White House. Commissioners serve two-year terms and are eligible for reappointment. Commissioners Bansal and Prodromou will serve through May 14, 2008.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid reappointed Preeta D. Bansal, who previously served as Chair of the Commission. She is a constitutional lawyer whose career has spanned government service, private law practice, and academia. She is currently a partner at the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. She served as the Solicitor General of the State of New York from 1999 through 2001. As Solicitor General, Ms. Bansal helped supervise a staff of 600 lawyers in the New York Department of Law and directly oversaw 45 lawyers in the Solicitor General's Office who handle appeals for the State of New York and its agencies in state and federal courts, write Attorney General opinions to state and municipal agencies on issues of state law, and provide advice and counsel to State agencies on constitutional and statutory matters. Ms. Bansal argued cases in the United States Supreme Court, the en banc Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and the New York Court of Appeals on behalf of New York State.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reappointed Elizabeth H. Prodromou, who is the Associate Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs and Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University. Prior to joining the faculty at Boston University, she taught at Princeton University in the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs. A regional expert on Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, Prodromou's scholarship and policy work concentrate on religion and international relations, nationalism and conflict resolution, and non-traditional security threats. Prodromou has published articles and chapters in books in several languages in numerous academic and policy journals in the United States and Europe. She has been a policy consultant to the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

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.