FOR YOUR INFORMATION

October 27, 2014 | By Katrina Lantos Swett and Mary Ann Glendon

The following op-ed appeared in The Seattle Times on October 24, 2014

NORTH Korea’s release of Jeffrey Fowle, imprisoned for leaving a Bible in a public place, still leaves two other Americans in captivity. Kenneth Bae, a former Washington state resident, and Matthew Miller are serving sentences of 15 and six years, respectively, of hard labor for supposedly undermining the government.

While their continued imprisonment highlights the country’s severe human-rights abuses, Fowle’s release — coupled with North Korea’s previous moves to blunt rising condemnation of its record — reveals a mindset that is increasingly sensitive to world opinion.

Thus, in the wake of Fowle’s release, the world must not let up. It must stand with the United States for Bae’s and Miller’s freedom. It must insist that Pyongyang cease abusing its own people’s religious freedom and related rights.

North Korea holds at least 200,000 people in penal labor camps where many are starved or beaten to death. It maintains a stranglehold on religious belief and practice, which are seen as threatening the state and the quasi-religious personality cult surrounding the ruling Kim family.

The United Nations is now poised to pass a resolution condemning North Korea’s appalling conduct and calling for the abuses to end.

The resolution responds to several key findings and developments this year:

In February, the U.N. Commission of Inquiry released a report concluding that Pyongyang’s abuses are “without any parallel in the contemporary world.” It found “an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, as well as of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information, and association.”

In April, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on which we serve, released its annual report confirming severe religious persecution. Since early 2013, the government has executed as many as 80 people for such crimes as possessing Bibles, while Bae was sentenced for a “national security crime” connected to his work for Youth with a Mission, an evangelical organization.

In June, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for human rights in North Korea, Marzuki Darusman, issued his own findings unveiling North Korea’s bleak human rights landscape, as did the U.N. Human Rights Council, which adopted a similar report last month as part of the Universal Periodic Review. Also last month, the U.N. General Assembly held a high-level discussion on North Korean abuses, during which Secretary of State John Kerry, confronting its labor camps, urged North Korea to “shut this evil system down.”

All of this unwanted attention has struck a nerve in Pyongyang. Last month, North Korea responded to the Commission of Inquiry findings with an unprecedented 54,000-word denial of the undeniable. For the first time in 15 years, North Korea sent its foreign minister to last month’s U.N. General Assembly opening. North Korea recently circulated its own resolution to counter the impending U.N. resolution. And earlier this week, it released Jeffrey Fowle.

Taken together, these responses show how, despite its insular history, the Kim Jong Un regime now worries what the world thinks. The U.N. resolution can keep the pressure on, reiterating to North Korea that the world cares, and that its depredations must end.

Yet, more can be done. The United States can work more closely with allies like Japan and South Korea to raise human-rights concerns and press for improvements, including closing the labor camps. China should fulfill its international duties to protect North Korean asylum seekers within its borders, allowing the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and international humanitarian groups to render assistance. And the United States could fully implement the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2012, using authorized funds to increase access to information and news media inside North Korea, promote human rights, resettle refugees and monitor humanitarian aid delivery.

It has been famously shown that while lights span the night sky over South Korea, North Korea is shrouded in darkness. It’s time to pierce the darkness. The world must support freedom for Bae and Miller — and for North Korea’s long-suffering people.

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 27, 2014 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. -  The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today commemorates International Religious Freedom Day, marking the 16^th anniversary of the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA).

By enacting IRFA, Congress and the President recognized that religious freedom matters.  Among its provisions, IRFA created an international religious freedom office in the State Department and the U.S. Commission on Intentional Religious Freedom (USCIRF), on which we serve, as an independent, bipartisan entity tasked with monitoring religious freedom worldwide and making policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State and Congress.

“Promoting international religious freedom not only is an integral part of our history and identity as a free nation, it also is a key human right recognized by international law and central to peace and stability worldwide,” said USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett.  “Events that have taken place since the passage of IRFA reinforce the importance of religious freedom as a core component of U.S. foreign policy deserving of a seat at the table with economic, national security, and other core U.S. concerns.

“Today is a day to not only remember international religious freedom, but a time to renew America’s commitment to advocating for religious freedom abroad,” said Dr. Lantos Swett.  “The U.S. needs to use every tool at its disposal, especially IRFA, in support of this vital human right and work with the international community to speak out against violations of religious freedom and serve as a voice of the voiceless around the globe.”

Earlier this year USCIRF released its 2014 Annual Report, the 15^th since the Commission’s creation, that evaluated the past decade and a half of U.S. foreign policy on religious freedom and made recommendations for how to carry this work forward into the 21^st century.  In addition, USCIRF’s Annual Report recommended the designation of eight nations to the State Department’s existing list of “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs, including: Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. (The State Department subsequently designated Turkmenistan a CPC.) USCIRF also recommended that the following countries be re-designated as CPCs: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan.

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

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

October 6, 2014 | By M. Zuhdi Jasser and Hannah Rosenthal

The following op-ed appeared in The Detroit News on October 4, 2014.

On Saturday we will witness a confluence of two holy days of Judaism and Islam, offering a unique moment to reflect on the imperative of religious freedom.

On that day, Jews will observe Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is marked by a call to repent of sins, while Muslims will commemorate Eid al-Adha (Holiday of the Sacrifice), marking Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to God.

For both communities, prayer, reflection, atonement and reverence for God are central to the commemoration of each holy day.

That both fall on the same day this year is a rare occurrence partly resulting from the shared use of a lunar month in our calendars, a symbolic reminder of common origins. The fact that both will be observed by our communities here on the same day in liberty and peace is remarkable. It is a tribute to the religious freedom that many Americans take for granted and is lacking across much of the globe.

As commissioners appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and as adherents of Judaism and Islam preparing to separately commemorate our holiest of days, we must reflect on the religious freedom conditions for Jews and Muslims abroad, while working for a future where all religious believers will enjoy the universal right of freedom of religion or belief.

According to the Pew Research Center’s January 2014 report, “Religious Hostilities Reach Six-Year High,” Jews were harassed in 71 countries and Muslims in 109 nations in 2012.

Jews in Iran often have been targets of anti-Semitic campaigns by government officials, including statements denying the Holocaust. Elsewhere in the Middle East, government media continue to promote anti-Semitic propaganda.

The plight of Rohingya Muslims in Burma remains especially dire, given relentless official discrimination and countless numbers being persecuted and made homeless and stateless. In China, the government persecutes Uighur Muslims, shutting down religious sites, conducting raids and restricting the study of the Quran.

What is true of Muslims and Jews is the case with members of nearly every religious group, as well as those who reject religious belief altogether. Nearly all suffer persecution somewhere in the world, despite the fact that most nations are signatories to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights guaranteeing freedom of religion.

It is time to reaffirm the universal human right to follow the dictates of conscience on matters of religion or belief, peacefully and without fear.

M. Zuhdi Jasser and Hannah Rosenthal are commissioners at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

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