WASHINGTON, DC – At the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Ambassador Jackie Wolcott was appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on March 14.  Ambassador Wolcott will serve a two-year term and succeeds Commissioner Mary Ann Glendon whose term expires on May 14.

“USCIRF welcomes Ambassador Jackie Wolcott as our newest incoming Commissioner,” said USCIRF Chairman Dr. Robert P. George.  “She will be a great asset to our Commission as USCIRF works to fulfill its 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. My fellow Commissioners and I also want to honor outgoing Commissioner Mary Ann Glendon for her outstanding service on the Commission and her passionate commitment to religious freedom.”

Ambassador Wolcott served most recently as USCIRF’s Executive Director from February 2010 through December 2015. Prior to joining USCIRF, the Ambassador had a long career in government executive positions, serving as Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Security Council. Ambassador Wolcott also was Ambassador and United States Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland and Special Representative of the President of the United States for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Ambassador Wolcott served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs. For several years, she had specific responsibility for human rights issues in the United Nations, including international freedom of religion issues. In this capacity, Ambassador Wolcott developed and implemented U.S. strategy at the UN Human Rights Commission, the Economic and Social Council, the Commission on the Status of Women, and all related issues in the UN General Assembly. She also worked on country specific religious freedom issues such as the protection of Baha’is in Iran, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion in North Korea, and the situation in Turkmenistan with regard to compulsory military service affecting objecting religious minorities.

Ambassador Wolcott also worked in the Senate and House, and has held several additional positions relating to national security affairs, including Associate Director for National Security in the Office of Presidential Personnel, The White House; White House Liaison for the Department of State; and Special Assistant for Congressional Affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, Department of State.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0615.

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the State Department’s decision proclaiming that groups including Yazidis, Christians, and Shi’a Muslims in Iraq and Syria are victims of genocide by ISIL, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also referred to as Daesh.  In his statement, Secretary of State John Kerry rightly observed that: “Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control,” is “genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actions,” and that it “kills Christians because they are Christians; Yezidis because they are Yezidis; Shia because they are Shia.”

“Secretary of State Kerry’s statement today shines an essential light on ISIL’s horrific actions and its extremist ideology, and correctly calls ISIL what it is:  genocidal,”  said USCIRF’s Chairman, Robert P. George.  “We must all stand against ISIL, which seeks to destroy minority religious communities and members of the majority community who do not subscribe to its barbaric interpretation of Islam.  But we must do more.  The U.S. government should seek a referral by the U.N. Security Council to the International Criminal Court to investigate ISIL’s atrocities in Iraq and Syria; work with our international partners to develop measures to protect and assist the region’s most vulnerable, including by increasing immediate humanitarian aid; and increase the number of Syrian refugees resettled to the United States, allocating sufficient resources to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to conduct the necessary vetting so that U.S. national security is not compromised.”

USCIRF called for the U.S. government to designate the Christian, Yazidi, Shi’a, Turkmen, and Shabak communities of Iraq and Syria as victims of genocide by ISIL on December 7, 2015.  USCIRF also has urged that the U.S. government and international community condemn the al-Assad regime for its indiscriminate targeting of primarily Sunni Muslims and for using rape, extrajudicial killings, starvation, sniper attacks, and torture in its attempt to maintain power, and make additional designations of international crimes as warranted.    

“USCIRF continues to urge the Administration to condemn the al-Assad regime in Syria for its brutal persecution and crimes against humanity committed against Sunni Muslims and others,” said Chairman George. “USCIRF also urges the U.S. government to seek a UN referral for an International Criminal Court investigation into crimes the al-Assad regime has committed, following the models used in Sudan and Libya.”

For more information, please see USCIRF chapters in the 2015 Annual report on Iraq and Syria and its press releases on:  USCIRF Statement on the Designation of Victims of Genocide, persecution, and Crimes Against Humanity in Syria and Iraq; and  Syria:  Five Years of Suffering Must End.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioners, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0615.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two years ago today, Russia unlawfully annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, cynically using the Orthodox “culture, civilization, and human values” that Russia and Ukraine supposedly share to justify this invasion. On this anniversary, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reiterates its concern about Russian authorities’ violations of religious freedom in Crimea, and urges the international community to take a stand against these abuses.

“The human rights and religious freedom situation in Crimea has deteriorated dramatically since the illegal March 2014 Russian occupation,” said USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George. “Religious minority communities, particularly Muslim Crimean Tatars, suffer because of Russia’s application of its more restrictive criminal and administrative codes, notably its onerous registration requirements and notorious anti-extremism law.”

No religious community remains unscathed, particularly given the Kremlin’s application of its extremism law in Crimea.  Russian authorities have raided Tatar homes, mosques, media outlets, and schools, and the Kingdom Halls of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They also have detained imams and fined individuals simply for possessing Islamic and Jehovah’s Witness text which are banned under the extremism law. Twelve Crimean Tatars, accused by Russian authorities of being members of a banned terrorist organization, were arrested in February 2016 after speaking with international human rights monitors about the repression of Tatars in Crimea.

In order to gain legal operating status, Russia requires all Crimean religious communities registered with the Ukrainian state to re-register under Russia’s more stringent requirements. Of the over 1,500 religious communities with Ukrainian legal status, only 400 were re-registered under Russian authority. Unregistered religious groups, including the Ukrainian Catholic Church – banned by the Kremlin 70 years ago  – and  Armenian Apostolic parishes, cannot open bank accounts, own property, issue invitations to foreign guests, and publish literature.  In view of the Kremlin’s hostility, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate did not even apply for registration.

“Russia has spread its net of intolerance to Crimea and freedom of religion or belief has been its victim.  The international community must not be silent in the face of these abuses,” said Chairman George. “Moscow must reform its anti-extremism law, cease its application to Crimea, grant legal status to the 1,500 religious groups that operated before the Russian annexation, and stop harassing religious minorities and those the Moscow Patriarchate views as rivals. USCIRF also urges the U.S. government to apply provisions of the Magnitsky Act and continue to identify Russian government officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom and human rights, freeze their assets, and bar their entry into the United States.”

USCIRF placed Russia on its Tier 2 list in its 2015 Annual Report. Tier 2 countries are those in which the violations the government engages in or tolerates are serious and characterized by at least one of the elements of IRFA’s “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” standard. For more information, see the Russia chapter in USCIRF’s 2015 Annual Report.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0615.