FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent federal agency created to monitor religious freedom abuses abroad and make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress, today issued " Protecting and Promoting Religious Freedom in Syria .”

USCIRF has become increasingly concerned about religious freedom conditions in Syria, both during the current crisis and in its aftermath.  Due to the intensifying conflict between government forces and affiliates supporting Bashar al-Assad's regime and anti-government elements seeking his overthrow, the Syrian people have experienced egregious violations of human rights, including freedom of religion or belief. 

The report found that the increasingly sectarian nature of the conflict has created a climate in which the human rights of all Syrians, including religious freedom, have been violated.  The conflict also threatens Syria's religious diversity, as members of the smallest minority communities are either fleeing the country or face an uncertain future in a post al-Assad Syria. 

This report provides USCIRF's preliminary findings and recommendations.  Over the coming months, USCIRF will continue to monitor the situation and expects to issue additional reports and recommendations.   

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner please contact USCRIF at (202) 523-3258 or [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 19, 2013 | By USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. - As Congress considers legislation to reform the U.S. immigration system, a new U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report, Assessing the U.S. Government's Detention of Asylum Seekers: Further Action Needed to Fully Implement Reforms, finds that the U.S. government continues to detain asylum seekers under inappropriate conditions in jails and jail-like facilities. This detention is contrary to both longstanding USCIRF recommendations and reforms the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in 2009.

"Many asylum seekers fleeing religious and other forms of persecution have experienced torture and trauma and should not be detained like criminals,” said USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett. "Such conditions may retraumatize this vulnerable population and cause them prematurely to withdraw their asylum claims. Asylum seekers with credible fear of persecution should be released from detention and detained in civil detention centers only when release is not possible.”

Between July and December 2012, USCIRF staff toured 10 detention facilities nationwide and met with officials and asylum seekers. The goal was to assess progress DHS' Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) had made on reforms that, if fully implemented, would realize USCIRF recommendations on the detention of asylum seekers. In October 2009, ICE had announced plans to develop a new immigration detention system, with facilities based on civil, not penal, models in locations with access to legal services, emergency rooms, and transportation.

"While ICE has made progress toward implementing the 2009 reforms, most asylum seekers continue to be detained in jail-like, not civil, facilities. ICE needs to expedite its efforts to ensure that any asylum seekers who must be detained are housed in civil facilities,” said Swett.

USCIRF continues to recommend that ICE codify into regulations its 2009 parole process and criteria guidelines under which most asylum seekers found to have a credible fear of persecution are paroled rather than detained. USCIRF also finds that further improvements are needed to expand immigration detainees' access to legal information, representation, and in-person hearings.

Given that many individuals fleeing religious persecution seek asylum in the UnitedStates, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) authorized USCIRF to examine whether asylum seekers subject to Expedited Removal were being detained under inappropriate conditions or being returned to countries where they might face persecution. USCIRF released its findings in the 2005 Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal. That report found serious flaws in both the processing and detention of asylum seekers in Expedited Removal and issued recommendations, none of which required Congressional action, to the relevant agencies in the DHS and Department of Justice (DOJ).

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner please contact USCRIFat (202) 523-3258 or [email protected]

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April 18, 2013 | By Elliott Abrams and Azizah al-Hibri

Xi Jinping needs to hear that religious freedom is the only way to stop self-immolations.

The following op-ed appeared in the Wall Street Journal on April 18, 2013.

When Kal Kyi, a 30-year-old mother of four, set herself on fire in March to protest Chinese repression of Tibet, she joined a grim and growing fellowship of despair. Over the past four years, 112 Tibetans have immolated themselves in protest against Chinese oppression.

Tibet is burning, and the world community, including the U.S., must speak out. China's new president, Xi Jinping, and the rest of its leadership must be persuaded that its interests lie with respecting human rights, particularly freedom of religion, and to restart discussions with Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama .

Unfortunately, persuading Beijing is no simple task. China's rulers have dug in their heels on Tibet as self-immolations continue to mount. They have expanded repressive measures while accusing foreign forces of fueling Tibetan grievances.

There remains an extraordinary disconnect between how China and the rest of the world view Tibet. While other nations see desperate protests by a pious and devoted people, Chinese leadership sees its enemies conspiring to disrupt "harmony" and wrest control of the country's remote southeast. Beijing blames the Dalai Lama for instigating the protests.

World leaders should counter Beijing's contention that Tibetans, a mere 0.5% of the population, threaten the power of wealthy and militarily secure China. A domestic armed rebellion has no realistic prospect of success and no outside force threatens to invade China. The U.S. and the international community recognize China's borders. The Dalai Lama continues to call for greater Tibetan autonomy, not independence.

Chinese actions have widened the gulf between the government and Tibetans in recent years. After protests erupted in Lhasa in 2008, Beijing redoubled its efforts to control Tibetan religion, including the selection of Buddhist religious leaders. Hundreds of monks and nuns languish in jail cells for the crime of peacefully resisting this attempted hijacking of their faith.

Self-immolation protests began in 2011 with the monks of Kirti monastery, located in a Tibetan area of Sichuan province. Their acts were meant as a reply to the ramped-up police presence at their monastery, growing control of their religious affairs and increased efforts to destroy their allegiance to the Dalai Lama. This form of protest has spread throughout China and into countries like India and Nepal.

In response, China has clamped down on satellite communication, restricted usage of flammable materials, tightened control over monasteries and increased police activity at religious sites. Last month, the government also enacted a law that equated assisting in a self-immolation with murder. In February 2013, five Tibetans were arrested and face long prison terms for alleged incitement of immolation protests.

In other words, faced with a rise in self-immolations, China's leaders responded by redoubling the kind of repression that triggered these actions in the first place. Far from stabilizing the region, their policies have deepened Tibetans' hopelessness and despair. Self-immolations have increased over the past six months, and have spread from monks and nuns to young Tibetans like Kal Kyi.

With no end in sight, it is time for the U.S. and other major powers to express plainly to China their deep concerns about its abuses. China cannot hear about global concerns over Tibet occasionally, nor can public meetings with the Dalai Lama and his representatives be avoided if China is to understand that renewed negotiations over Tibetan autonomy are in its interest.

Leaders of free nations should confront Xi Jinping with the fact that Beijing's Tibet policy is a colossal failure. Repression at home damages China abroad by tarnishing its global image.

Silence is inexcusable. We must consistently and persistently call for Beijing to uphold religious freedom for the sake of human rights and stability alike. President Xi must hear repeatedly from U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders that China's policies ignore mounting evidence that freedom, not repression, creates peaceful and prosperous societies. Such societies are secured by honoring the dignity and worth of people, empowering and encouraging their participation in civil society, protecting their liberties in law and practice, and allowing them the fundamental right to practice their faith and live their lives according to their conscience.

In a country as vast, diverse and globally engaged as China, lasting stability is impossible when people are denied religious freedom. If Beijing guarantees freedoms for all, from Tibetan Buddhists to Uighur Muslims, and from Christians to the Falun Gong, it will help, not hinder, China's quest for security.

-Mr. Abrams and Ms. al-Hibri serve as commissioners for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner please contact USCRIFat (202) 523-3258 or [email protected]