FOR YOUR INFORMATION

June 18, 2014 | By Katrina Lantos Swett & Mary Ann Glendon 

The following op-ed appeared in Deseret News on June 18, 2014.

In the Geneva meeting of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that began on June 10 and runs through June 27 are a number of member states which continue to perpetrate or tolerate serious violations of human rights, including religious freedom.

Like some of its older members, five of its 13 new states this year — China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Cuba, and Russia — have been cited by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), on which we serve, for failing to respect or protect this liberty. Their behavior contradicts the Council’s mission of promoting and protecting fundamental rights, including religious freedom. The world community should spotlight this incongruity and support accountability and change.

The United States has rightly designated two new members — China and Saudi Arabia — “countries of particular concern” or CPCs, under the International Religious Freedom Act, ranking them as severe violators. In its annual report, released on April 30, USCIRF recommended, as it has for years, that Vietnam also be named a CPC, and noted significant violations in Cuba and Russia.

Religious freedom conditions in China have continued to deteriorate, particularly for Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims. To inhibit the growth of independent Catholic and Protestant groups, the government has arrested leaders, shuttered churches and selected Catholic bishops without Vatican approval. The Falun Gong and other groups deemed “evil cults” face long-term imprisonments, forced renunciations of faith and torture in detention.

Saudi Arabia still restricts public expression of any religion besides Islam, allowing no non-Muslim houses of worship. Favoring its own interpretation of Sunni Islam, the government arrests and detains Shi’a dissidents and imprisons individuals for apostasy, blasphemy and sorcery.

Vietnam imprisons individuals for religious activity or religious freedom advocacy. Its specialized religious police force and vague national security laws suppress independent Buddhist, Protestant, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai activities. It seeks to halt the growth of ethnic minority Protestantism and Catholicism through discrimination, violence and forced renunciations of faith.

Religious freedom remains a concern in Cuba, despite some improvements for government-approved religious groups, with increased government control over the internal structures of religious communities and pressure to prevent democracy and human rights activists from participating in religious activities.

In Russia, freedom of religion or belief has suffered setbacks along with other human rights. Broad extremism laws are deployed against certain Muslim groups and “non-traditional” religious communities, particularly Jehovah’s Witnesses. Members also experience raids, detentions and imprisonment. Various laws and practices increasingly grant preferential status to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in ways that are inconsistent with religious freedom.

These five new UNHRC members join a Council that already includes other violators.

One example is Pakistan, which we’re recommending again for CPC designation due to its failure to protect Shi’a, Christians, Ahmadis and Hindus from violence and its blasphemy and anti-Ahmadi laws, which foster a climate of impunity.

Another such nation is India, which, despite being a pluralistic electoral democracy, fails to protect religious freedom. While not rising to the level of CPC violator, India’s government has yet to achieve full justice for past communal violence against Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. Further, state-adopted anti-conversion laws fuel intimidation, harassment and violence against Christians and Muslims.

Yet another UNHRC nation with a problematic religious freedom record is Kazakhstan, which rigorously enforces its religion law against unregistered religious activity through police raids, major fines and even psychiatric detention, echoing its Soviet past.

And there is Indonesia, where “religiously deviant” people are arrested and federal and provincial officials fail to counter extremist violence.

For those abused on account of their faith, nothing could be more demoralizing than failing to hold violators responsible. Their presence on the UNHRC makes a mockery of its mission and these states can use the council to oppose the kinds of human rights resolutions that normally would address their misconduct.

Until these nations show signs of genuine progress on human rights, including religious freedom, their UNHRC presence sends an unfortunate message to both friends and foes of freedom. It makes the role of the United States and other supporters of human rights and religious freedom all the more pivotal, not only to address these violations but to stand as witness to them, providing strength and hope to the oppressed.

Katrina Lantos Swett is vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Mary Ann Glendon is a USCIRF commissioner.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 19, 2014 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, DC – At the recommendation of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Hannah Rosenthal was appointed to USCIRF on June 17, 2014.

“USCIRF welcomes Hannah Rosenthal as our newest incoming Commissioner,” said USCIRF Chairman Dr. Robert P. George.  “She will be a great asset to our Commission as we work to fulfill our  mandate of highlighting serious threats to religious freedom throughout the world and making policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress on behalf of the cherished right of freedom of religion or belief and its fuller integration into U.S. foreign policy.” 

Hannah Rosenthal is the CEO and president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. Prior to joining the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Hannah served as: Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, US State Department; Executive Director, Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW); Executive Director, Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA); and Executive Director, Wisconsin Women’s Council.  Rosenthal currently represents the at-large community on the United States National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and on the Committee on Holocaust Denial and State-Sponsored Anti-Semitism of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  Rosenthal is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and studied for the rabbinate in Jerusalem and California. She has long been active in public policy in Wisconsin, serving in support roles to a Wisconsin State Representative and a Wisconsin Member of Congress, as well as heading a Wisconsin state agency and a regional federal agency.  Rosenthal also is a former member of the Madison Jewish Federation Board of Directors.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 11, 2014 | USCIRF 

Washington, D.C. – The draft of the ill-advised “Religious Conversion Law” which Burma’s parliament released for public comment would further restrict religious freedom in a country considered one of the worst by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The May 27 draft responds to Burmese U Thein Sein’s request that parliament consider four laws demanded by a Buddhist organization connected to the nationalist movement known as “969.”  The drafting committee will receive suggestions until June 20, 2014, and then will submit a draft law on conversion to the parliament.

“The draft conversion law is irreparably flawed and would contravene Burma’s international commitments to protect freedom of religion or belief.  Such a law has no place in the 21^st century, and we urge that it be withdrawn,” said USCIRF Chairman Robert George.  “This draft law, and the three others that may follow, risk stoking continuing violence and discrimination against Muslims and other religious minorities, including Christians.”

The draft conversion law would create a governmental Registration Board to approve all religious conversions.  While stating that “everyone has the freedom to convert from one religion to another,” the draft law would create a system clearly geared to discourage conversion.  An individual seeking to convert must supply a Registration Board panel with an extensive list of personal information and the answers to intrusive questions, and then wait 90 days for approval.  This requirement would apply to Burmese both inside and outside the country.  The draft law includes penalties of up to two years in jail for those applying to convert “with an intent to insult, disrespect, destroy, or to abuse a religion,” though it is unclear how such an intent would be proved.   

“Because of the government’s unwillingness to address ongoing violence and discrimination against religious minorities, USCIRF recently recommended that the U.S. government maintain its designation of Burma as a ‘country of particular concern’ (CPC) for severe religious freedom violations,” continued Chairman George.  “The government of Burma should be seeking legal reforms to address religious discrimination rather than a regressive law that would inappropriately make the government the arbiter of ‘real’ conversions.  If the conversion law, and other laws the ‘969’ movement demands are passed, the United States government should factor these negative developments into its evolving relationship with Burma.”

USCIRF concluded in its 2014 Annual Report chapter on Burma (translated here) that political reforms have not improved legal protections for religious freedom and have done little to curtail anti-Muslim violence, incitement, and discrimination, particularly targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority. (Theravada Buddhism is the dominant religion, with other significant minority religions including Christianity and Islam.)  Police have failed to intervene effectively and the government has neither addressed the underlying causes of sectarian violence nor held individuals fully accountable. State-sponsored discrimination and state-condoned violence against Rohingya and Kaman ethnic Muslim minorities also has continued, and ethnic minority Christians have faced serious abuses during military incursions in Kachin state. Based on these systematic, egregious, ongoing violations, USCIRF has continued to recommend that Burma remain designated as a CPC.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at 202-786-0613 or [email protected].