FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 27, 2001

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

The White House announced September 26 that President Bush intends to nominate John V. Hanford III for the position of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. The ambassador, when confirmed by the Senate, also serves as a nonvoting, ex officio member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

Mr. Hanford replaces Ambassador Robert Seiple, the first person to hold the position. Ambassador Seiple returned to the private sector in September 2000.

"Ambassador Seiple made a significant contribution to the work of this Commission and the Commissioners valued him as a colleague," said Commission Chair Michael K. Young, who served with him. "We welcome Mr. Hanford, who has a long interest in these issues, and look forward to a similarly fruitful relationship."

"The ambassador-at-large, who reports directly to the Secretary of State, plays a vital role in keeping the issue before U.S. policymakers and in conducting U.S. diplomacy," Chairman Young said. "We're very pleased that the president has moved to fill this crucial job."

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." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2001

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom today announced the election of Dean Michael K. Young of George Washington University Law School as Chairman for the term to end in May 2002.

Commissioner Young served as the Commission's Vice Chairman from June 1999 to June 2000. He joined the George Washington University Law School as Dean in 1998 after serving as the Fuyo Professor of Japanese Law and Legal Institutions at the School of Law of Columbia University. He also served as Director of the Center for Japanese Legal Studies, the Center for Korean Legal Studies, and the Project on Religion, Rights, and Religious Freedom at Columbia University. During the administration of President George Bush, he served as Ambassador for Trade and Environmental Affairs, Deputy Under Secretary for Economic and Agricultural Affairs, and Deputy Legal Adviser to the U.S. Department of State. Commissioner Young is now serving his second term on the Commission.

Commissioners Felice Gaer, director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee, and Charles R. Stith, former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania and director of the African Presidential Archives and Research Center at Boston University, were elected to serve with Chairman Young on an executive committee.

Also serving as Commissioners are Firuz Kazemzadeh, senior advisor, National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States; Richard Land, president and CEO of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention; Bishop William F. Murphy, bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y.; Leila Nadya Sadat, professor of law, Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Mo.; Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House; and The Hon. Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli, director of the South Asia Program of the Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. All Commissioners' terms expire May 14, 2003.

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." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 18, 2001

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

President George W. Bush yesterday appointed Dr. Richard D. Land of Nashville, Tennessee, the Most Reverend William Francis Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, and Dr. Shirin Raziuddin Tahir-Kheli of Bala-Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. All nine voting Commissioners have now been appointed and will serve until May 14, 2003.

Dr. Richard D. Land is currently the President and the Chief Executive Officer of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to joining the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Land was the Vice President for Academic Affairs at The Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. Land received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, a Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University in Oxford, England, and a Master's of Theology from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

The Most Reverend William Francis Murphy is currently Bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York. Bishop Murphy was the Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia for the Archdiocese of Boston. He served as the Director of the Office of Social Justice and the Secretary of Community Relations for the Archdiocese of Boston from 1987 to 1993, and from 1980 to 1987 he was the Under Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Justitia et Pax. Bishop Murphy is a graduate of St. John's Seminary and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Shirin Raziuddin Tahir-Kheli is the Director, South Asia Program of the Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She headed the United States delegation in 2001 to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. From 1992 to 1993, she was a member of the National Advisory Council on the Public Service, and from 1990 to 1993, she was the Alternate U.S. Representative for Special Political Affairs to the United Nations. From 1984 to 1989, Dr. Tahir-Kheli was a member of the National Security Council, first as the Director of Political-Military Affairs and then as Director of Near East and South Asian Affairs. She is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, and received a Master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Commission consists of nine voting Commissioners and the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, who is a non-voting member. Three Commissioners are selected by the President, two by the leaders of the President's party in Congress, and four by the congressional leaders of the other party. Commissioners serve for a two-year term and are eligible for reappointment.

Dr. Land, Bishop Murphy, and Dr. Tahir-Kheli join Felice Gaer, Dr. Firuz Kazemzadeh, Leila Nadya Sadat, Nina Shea, Ambassador Charles Stith, and Dean Michael Young. The President has yet to nominate an Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, a position that has been vacant for a year.

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." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />