Oct 19, 2017
The following op-ed appeared in The Washington Examiner on September 26, 2017
By former USCIRF Commissioner Thomas J. Reese
Torture. Arbitrary arrests and detention without charges. A ban on public religious activities. Stifling of dissent. Forced labor.
The governments of far too many countries persecute their citizens, including one we hear too little about: Eritrea. Those who know the character of the Eritrean government and its president, Isaias Afwerki, refer to the regime as the "North Korea of Africa." A fitting moniker.
This week, Eritreans celebrate the holiday of Meskel, commemorating the finding of the True Cross. The head of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, however, will celebrate this holiday as he has for the past 10 years – under house arrest suffering from severe diabetes, imprisoned for his beliefs.
It is for this reason that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on which I serve, has recommended since 2004 that the State Department designate Eritrea as a "country of particular concern" for its systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. For the same reason, the State Department has indeed taken our advice and applied this designation every year since, most recently in October 2016.
One man's story provides a prime example of Eritrea's violations of religious freedom. For more than ten years, 90-year-old Patriarch Abune (or "Father") Antonios of the Eritrean Orthodox Church has been denied due process and refused vitally needed medical care by the government. He is being unlawfully detained, having been earlier unlawfully removed from office.
The "crimes" for which Patriarch Antonios has been detained include his calling in 2005 for the release of political prisoners, and his refusal to excommunicate 3,000 church members who opposed the government. Because of his principled stance in a dictatorship, the government removed him as leader of the Church, illegally replaced him, and since 2007 held him under house arrest.
He has been seen in public only three times since then, including at a mass this past July during which he was prohibited from concelebrating or speaking to his congregants. When it was over, he was promptly was placed back under detention.
Now that we know Patriarch Antonios is alive, it is vital that we focus on working to set him free. To that end, I now work on his behalf as part of USCIRF's Religious Prisoners of Conscience project.
On paper, the Eritrean constitution provides for freedom of thought, conscience, and belief. In truth, no such freedoms exist. In fact, there are very few legal protections in Eritrea. Thousands of religious followers are detained and held in the harshest prisons, subject to cruel punishment and torture.
President Afwerki and the Popular Front for Democracy and Justice maintain absolute authority. Thousands of Eritreans are imprisoned for real or imagined opposition to the government. In 2015 and 2016, the United Nations documented extensive use of torture and forced labor, including against religious prisoners of conscience and in 2016 found "reasonable grounds to conclude" that the government has committed crimes against humanity.
There are no private newspapers, political opposition parties, or independent nongovernmental organizations in Eritrea. The government requires all physically and mentally capable people between the ages of 18 and 70 to fulfill a full-time, indefinite, and poorly-paid national service obligation. Those who refuse are reportedly detained, sentenced to hard labor, abused, and have their legal documents confiscated. Conscripts cannot practice their religion and are punished severely if they are found with religious materials or participating in religious gatherings.
What should the U.S. government do going forward? Aside from designating Eritrea as a Country of Particular Concern and maintaining the existing arms embargo against the regime, our government should use bilateral and multilateral diplomatic channels to urge the Eritrean government to release unconditionally and immediately detainees held because of their peaceful religious activities, including Patriarch Antonios; and to repeal oppressive registration requirements for religious communities.
Thirteen years ago this month, Eritrea was designated a CPC and placed on a list which, in an ideal world, would not have to exist. Along with my fellow commissioners, I look forward to the day when Patriarch Antonios is free and Eritreans experience robust religious freedom.
Father Thomas J. Reese is a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Oct 18, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 18, 2017
USCIRF Condemns Pakistan Sentencing Three Ahmadis to Death for Blasphemy
USCIRF Chairman Mark calls blasphemy laws “an assault on human rights and dignity"
WASHINGTON, D.C. – According to media reports, three members of the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan have been sentenced to death for blasphemy by a court in Sheikhupura, a town northwest of Lahore in the Punjab Province. Daniel Mark, Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) stated that “Pakistan must repeal its blasphemy laws and immediately release all those imprisoned under those provisions. Blasphemy laws and the horrific acts they unleash are an assault on human rights and dignity.”
A spokesman for the Ahmadiyya community has stated that Mubasher Ahmad, Ghulam Ahmed, and Ehsan Ahmed were sentenced last week to death after having been arrested in 2014. The spokesman further indicated that these individuals would challenge the court’s decision.
Chairman Mark, along with Commissioner Thomas J. Reese, S.J., visited Pakistan in May of this year and met with a variety of religious minorities, including representatives of the Ahmadi community. As part of USCIRF’s Religious Prisoners of Conscience Project, Chairman Mark has chosen to advocate on behalf of imprisoned Ahmadi member Abdul Shakoor. After a speedy trial in an anti-terrorism court, Mr. Shakoor was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment under the Penal Code for blasphemy and three years under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Pakistan’s constitution declares Ahmadis to be non-Muslims and the Penal Code makes it criminal for Ahmadis to refer to themselves as Muslims; preach, propagate, or disseminate materials on their faith; or refer to their houses of worship as mosques. “In short,” added Chairman Mark, “Ahmadis are required to renounce their faith in order to avail themselves of important civil rights in Pakistan.”
“This latest case,” said Chairman Mark, “reinforces that there is no excuse for the blasphemy provisions in Article 295 of the Pakistani Penal Code to even exist. USCIRF has consistently called on Pakistan to repeal such laws. They violate human rights standards and make the government the ultimate arbiter of religious doctrines or truths. This is quite simply wrong.”
Additional USCIRF resources on blasphemy and Pakistan:
2017 Annual Report (Pakistan chapter – English/Urdu)
Respecting Rights? Measuring the World’s Blasphemy Laws
Press release for Respecting Rights?
Chairman Mark speaks on behalf of Abdul Shakoor
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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world. USCIRF reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the Congressional leadership of both political parties. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or John D. Lawrence, Director of Communications ([email protected]/ +1-202-786-0611).
Oct 12, 2017
The following op-ed appeared in Huffington Post on October 12, 2017
By former Commissioner Tenzin Dorjee and Congressman Jim Mcgovern
Imagine you are a 6-year-old. Your world is your family, friends and community. One day, people come to your home and reveal that you are very special, a venerable leader of your faith, and that you will serve as a spiritual guide for your people.
Two days later, authorities appear. They force you and your family from your home and take you away.
This is what we know about Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, chosen on May 15, 1995 by the Dalai Lama, the highest position in Tibetan Buddhism, to be the 11th Panchen Lama, filling the second highest position. On May 17, 1995, the Chinese government detained him and his family and announced a few months later that it had selected its own Panchen Lama. In so doing, the government asserted an authority that it does not possess: to name a reincarnated religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism—a particularly ironic action given the state’s official atheism.
We have chosen to advocate for the Panchen Lama and highlight the Chinese government’s laws, policies and practices that led to his disappearance. Our advocacy is part of the congressional Defending Freedoms Project of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and the Religious Prisoners of Conscience Project of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
The Panchen Lama has not been heard from since that day, more than 20 years ago, when he and his family were taken. He now is one of the world’s longest-held prisoners of conscience. Representatives from the U.S. government, the United Nations, civil society organizations and others repeatedly have asked to see him. During a July 2017 Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on “Tibet: Freedom of Religion,” which highlighted deteriorating conditions in Tibet, we called on the Chinese government to provide authenticated video graphic evidence of the Panchen Lama’s well-being. The Chinese government answers these inquiries with silence, statements that they are protecting him from being “kidnapped by separatists,” or bromides about his “normal, happy life receiving a good education and cultural upbringing,” and desire to “not be disturbed.” Even if true, we want to hear from the Panchen Lama himself, without mediation.
The Panchen Lama’s disappearance is emblematic of the violations of religious freedom that take place in Tibetan areas on a daily basis. While the People’s Republic of China presents itself as a global superpower that respects the rule of law and international standards, nothing could be farther from the truth.
The Chinese government has disappeared many Tibetan Buddhists and imprisoned thousands, many of whose cases have been documented by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. The government forces some Tibetans into reeducation programs, imposes extensive electronic and physical surveillance, mandates government officials’ presence in monasteries, cancels festivals, restricts travel, and intrusively restricts private religious practice. These restrictions have escalated since President Xi Jinping assumed leadership of the military and the Communist Party in November 2012.
At Larung Gar, one of the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist institutes, and Yachen Gar, a nearby religious community, the Chinese government has demolished buildings and evicted thousands in an attempt to eviscerate the teachings and study integral to the practice of Tibetan Buddhism. In late August Communist Party and government officials were appointed to manage Larung Gar.
Due to the extensive repression, since 2009 at least 150 Tibetans have self-immolated, one of the few forms of protest many Tibetans believe remains to them given the intense government control that prevents most collective acts of resistance.
Government officials also continually attack the Dalai Lama, seeking to make him a persona non grata worldwide. They accuse him of “blasphemy” and “splittism,” refer to him as a “wolf in monk’s robes,” and, most egregiously, want to exercise complete control over his reincarnation.
We believe that the U.S. government must do more in response to the religious freedom violations the Chinese government has committed against the Tibetan people. To that end, we urge the Congress to pass and President Trump to sign H.R. 1872, the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act. We also urge the Administration to designate China as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) for its systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, and develop a list of Chinese officials subject to sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act.
We must not be silent about the Chinese government’s persecution of the Tibetan people. That government has disappeared the Panchen Lama and seeks to make the Tibetan people disappear by repressing their religion, culture, and language. We cannot let this happen on our watch.