Next week, from June 28 to June 30, the second annual International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit will be held in Washington, DC. The IRF Summit brings together a diverse coalition of NGOs and individuals from all over the world committed to the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief and aims to increase public awareness and political support for the international religious freedom movement.

Former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, co-chair of the IRF Summit, joins us today to preview this year’s activities and the Summit’s importance for promoting freedom of religion or belief.

Check out the IRF Summit website

Nury Turkel Elected as Chair of Bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Abraham Cooper as Vice Chair

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today unanimously elected Nury Turkel as its Chair to lead the Commission for 2022-2023. USCIRF Commissioners also unanimously elected Abraham Cooper as its Vice Chair.

“I am truly honored to be elected as Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and privileged to lead the Commission as we work towards addressing threats to freedom of religion and belief around the world – a fundamental human right,” USCIRF Chair Turkel stated. “This bipartisan group of USCIRF Commissioners brings a range of complementary experiences and shared commitment to the promotion of religious freedom of all faiths, including those who choose not to practice a belief. I look forward to working with Vice Chair Cooper and my fellow Commissioners in urging the White House, State Department, and Congress to implement USCIRF’s policy recommendations.”

Chair Turkel was the first Uyghur American appointed to the Commission by House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in May 2020 and was reappointed in May 2022. He has participated in many USCIRF-sponsored hearings, meetings, and delegations, including travel to Uzbekistan. Chair Turkel is a lawyer, foreign policy expert, and human rights advocate. He is the Chairman of the Board for the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Vice Chair Cooper was recently appointed to the Commission by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He is the Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a leading Jewish human rights organization with more than 400,000 family members. He is also a founder of the Global Forum on Anti-Semitism. An acknowledged expert on online hate and terrorism, he regularly meets with world leaders to defend the rights of the Jewish people, combat terrorism, and promote multi-faith relations worldwide.

“I am eager to work more closely with Chair Turkel and my colleagues to advance international religious freedom, especially as we are witnessing a surge of religious communities targeted by foreign governments and nonstate actors,” USCIRF Vice Chair Cooper added. “USCIRF will remain a strong advocate for these communities and will work closely with U.S. government officials to keep religious freedom a top foreign policy priority.”

Also serving on the Commission are David Curry, Frederick A. Davie, Sharon Kleinbaum, Stephen Schneck, Eric Ueland, and Frank Wolf.

Read the full Commissioner biographies here.

###

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected]. 

USCIRF Welcomes European Court Judgment Against Russia on Jehovah’s Witnesses

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment issued on June 7 that found Russia violated freedom of thought, conscience, and religion—among other rights—through the government’s sustained and increasingly brazen campaign against Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Russian Supreme Court banned Jehovah’s Witnesses as an “extremist” organization in 2017 and since then has regularly raided, detained, arrested, and imprisoned Jehovah’s Witnesses on groundless criminal charges.

“We applaud the European Court’s decisive ruling on the Russian government’s inexplicable repression of Jehovah’s Witnesses through its various bans on their activities and religious literature. USCIRF reiterates the Court’s call on Russia to bring an immediate end to its prosecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses and to release all those it has unjustly imprisoned,” stated USCIRF Vice Chair Nury Turkel. “We urge the U.S. government and international community to continue speaking out against Russia’s repression of religious communities.”

USCIRF has repeatedly highlighted the religious freedom violations that Russia has committed, including those against Jehovah’s Witnesses. In March, USCIRF warned about the potential for the expansion of Russia’s religious oppression in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s latest invasion and published a Backgrounder further detailing religious freedom conditions under Russia. On May 21, the Russian government sanctioned USCIRF Vice Chair Nury Turkel and former USCIRF Commissioners along with many other American citizens in retaliation to the “ever-expanding U.S. sanctions on Russian political and public figures, as well as representatives of domestic businesses.”

“USCIRF will never be intimidated to stop highlighting the violation of religious freedom around the world, including the Russian government’s myriad religious freedom violations. We will not cease advocating for the many religious prisoners of conscience that remain incarcerated by Russia to this day,” added USCIRF Commissioner Abraham Cooper.

In its 2022 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended the U.S. government redesignate Russia as a “Country of Particular Concern,” or CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. In November 2021, the U.S. Department of State designated Russia as a CPC for the first time.

###

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected].