Jun 30, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2004
Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent and bipartisan federal agency advising the Administration and Congress, has elected Preeta D. Bansal to serve as Chair. Commissioner Bansal succeeds Michael K. Young, outgoing Dean of The George Washington University Law School and incoming President of the University of Utah. The election follows the Commission's practice of alternating the post of Chair yearly between Democratic and Republican appointees. The Chair is chosen by the Commissioners themselves.
Commissioner Preeta D. Bansal is Of Counsel at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York City. She is a constitutional lawyer whose career has spanned government service, private law practice, and academia. She served as the Solicitor General of the State of New York from 1999 through 2001. Prior to her appointment as New York Solicitor General, Ms. Bansal practiced appellate, constitutional, and media law with private law firms in Washington, D.C. and New York City. She also served in the Clinton Administration as Counselor in the U.S. Justice Department and as Special Counsel in the Office of the White House Counsel, has taught constitutional law and First Amendment law, and served as a public policy fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court and to Chief Judge James L. Oakes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ms. Bansal is a magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe College, and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was Supervising Editor of The Harvard Law Review.
Commissioner Felice D. Gaer is the Director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee. She is Vice Chair of the Committee Against Torture, an official United Nations treaty monitoring body that reviews governmental compliance with the Convention Against Torture. She is the first American to serve on the Committee. Ms. Gaer was appointed as a public member of nine U.S. delegations to UN human rights negotiations between 1993 and 1999, including the UN Commission on Human Rights, the World Conference on Women, and the World Conference on Human Rights. She is also a member of the steering committee of Human Rights Watch/Europe and Central Asia and the International Human Rights Council of the Carter Center. Ms. Gaer is the author of more than 30 articles on international human rights topics. In 1995, she was awarded the Alumnae Achievement Award from Wellesley College.
Commissioner Nina Shea is the Director of the Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House in Washington, D.C. She has been an international human rights lawyer for 25 years and has for 18 years focused specifically on the issue of religious persecution. Before her appointment to this Commission, on which she has served from the beginning, Ms. Shea served on the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom to the U.S. Secretary of State. She has organized and sponsored numerous fact-finding missions to Sudan, China, Egypt, and elsewhere and has testified regularly before Congress about the governments of these countries. She is the author of In the Lion's Den, a book on anti-Christian persecution around the world, and writes frequently on the status of religious freedom in the world. She was appointed as a public delegate on the U.S. delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1993 and 2001.
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.
Preeta D. Bansal,Chair
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Jun 17, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 16, 2004
Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240 (202) 523-3240, ext. 27
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today met with Secretary of State Colin Powell as part of its statutory mandate to advise the President, Secretary of State, and Congress on the promotion of religious freedom in U.S. foreign policy. The Commission reiterated its June 2003 recommendation that the United States appoint a high-level official to the new U.S. Embassy in Iraq, reporting directly to the Ambassador and supported by a unit of personnel within the Embassy, to monitor and report on human rights, including religious freedom, and to promote the protection of international human rights standards as a key U.S. policy objective. The Commission underscored that the new Embassy should have a vigorous program to engage Iraqis to promote the provisions in the Transitional Administrative Law's (TAL) guaranteeing the rights of every Iraqi to freedom of thought, conscience, and religious belief and practice in the permanent Constitution.
"The provisions in the TAL are a milestone in the Arab world, constitutionally protecting not only religious minorities but also individual Muslims, and particularly women, to debate the role of Islam and to pursue reform. The deplorable Abu Ghraib prison incidents highlight the necessity for the United States to ensure that human rights are protected both in U.S. actions in Iraq and in the permanent Constitution," said USCIRF Chair Michael K. Young.
The Commission also urged Secretary Powell to designate Saudi Arabia a "country of particular concern" (CPC) for its systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, as outlined in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA). In a report released yesterday, an independent task force on terrorist financing of the Council on Foreign Relations specifically endorsed several USCIRF recommendations on Saudi Arabia, including that the U.S. government in its bilateral relations with the Saudi government should more frequently identify serious human rights violations and that Congress should initiate and make public a study on Saudi exportation of intolerance.
"In addition to Saudi Arabia, Commissioners also urged Secretary Powell to designate Turkmenistan and Vietnam, and Eritrea as CPCs. In Turkmenistan, recent moves by President Niyazov in response to U.S. pressure have not fundamentally changed the restrictive and abusive policies there. In Vietnam, the Vietnamese government has not taken positive steps despite constant specific high-level diplomatic discussions. In Eritrea, the government has not been forthcoming in response to U.S. efforts to discuss the worsening religious freedom situation there. The integrity and utility of IRFA is being undermined by the failure to name abusive countries as CPCs," said USCIRF Chair Michael K. Young.
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.
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Dean Michael K. Young,Chair
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May 28, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 28, 2004
Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27
WASHINGTON - "The Commission believes that Turkmenistan should be designated a ‘country of particular concern' (CPC) for its egregious violations of religious freedom," said USCIRF Chair Michael K. Young. "This week's statement by the Turkmenistan's Ministry of Justice, declaring unregistered religious activity illegal, underscores the need for the State Department to set down a series of benchmarks that require more than paper promises. CPC designation would likely lead to significant improvements for the religious communities in Turkmenistan who have been ignored by the outside world for too long."
The Turkmen government deploys a battery of repressive measures such as threats, fines, job demotions and dismissals, beatings, confiscations, and deportations against religious communities, as documented by the USCIRF in its reports. The Ministry of Justice in Turkmenistan this week said that unregistered religious activity remains illegal despite the May 13, 2004, decree by President Niyazov that dropped from the criminal code the practice of unauthorized religious activities. The May 13 decree supplemented a March 11, 2004 decree that dropped from 500 to 50 the number of adherents in a religious community required for registration. Some had hoped that Niyazov's May 13 decree would result in the legalization of Shia Muslim, Baptist, Baha'i, Pentecostal, Adventist, Armenian Apostolic, Lutheran, Hare Krishna, Jehovah's Witness, and Jewish religious activities. As of now, only the state-regulated Sunni Muslim and the Russian Orthodox Church are granted limited legal status in Turkmenistan. On March 29, President Niyazov suddenly announced that no new mosques could be built after that date in Turkmenistan.
On May 13, Niyazov also issued a second decree that nullified a secret decree promulgated on 23 March, eleven days after his "liberalization" of the registration requirements for religious communities. The 23 March decree had required all registered religious communities to subject themselves to strict state financial regulation. Despite the May 13 decree, however, religious communities are required to adhere to a six-page model statute as a condition of registration. These harsh registration requirements violate international law and force many religious communities in Turkmenistan to function "underground."
Despite the blatant and on-going violations of religious freedom in Turkmenistan, some believe that if the government were to allow a few religious communities to register then Turkmenistan should not be designated a CPC. The Ministry of Justice said yesterday, however, that no religious communities have been allowed to register.
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.
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Dean Michael K. Young,Chair
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