June 7, 2012| by USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett , President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, was elected on Wednesday June 6 as Chair of the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Dr. Swett was appointed to the Commission in March 2012 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and is serving her first term.

"I'm honored to serve as chair of USCIRF and to work alongside my fellow commissioners in the struggle to guarantee religious freedom for all,” said Dr. Swett. "This Commission has accomplished much, but much is left to be done. We will continue to work with Congress and the Executive Branch, to ensure that this basic human right is a fully integrated component of U.S. foreign, economic and national security policies.”

As the President of the Lantos Foundation, which was founded in 2008, Dr. Swett works to carry on the human rights legacy of her father, the late Representative Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress. Dr. Lantos Swett teaches human rights and American foreign policy at Tufts University. She also served as Deputy Counsel to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee for then-Senator Joe Biden.

Also on June 6, two USCIRF Commissioners were elected Vice-Chairs: The Reverend William J. Shaw , Pastor of the White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia, and Mary Ann Glendon , the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University and President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Rev. Shaw was appointed to the Commission in May 2012 by President Obama and is serving his second term. He is past President of the National Baptist Convention, the largest African American religious organization in the United States. He currently chairs the Board of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and has served as President of The Baptist Ministers" Conference of Philadelphia and Vicinity, The Metropolitan Christian Council of Philadelphia, and the Union Theological Seminary National Alumni Association. From 1981 through 1994, he served as Director of the Ministers" Division of the National Congress of Christian Education.

Professor Glendon, appointed to USCIRF by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in May 2012, is serving her first term on the Commission. She is the former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. Professor Glendon writes and teaches in the fields of human rights, comparative law, constitutional law, and political theory, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1991, the International Academy of Comparative Law, and a past president of the UNESCO-sponsored International Association of Legal Science. She served two terms as a member of the U.S. President's Council on Bioethics (2001-2004), and has represented the Holy See at various conferences including the 1995 U.N. Women's conference in Beijing where she headed the Vatican delegation.

Also serving on the Commission are Elliott Abrams , Dr. Azizah al-Hibri , Sam Gejdenson , Dr. Robert P. George , and Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser .

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and House of Representatives. USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact Samantha Schnitzer at [email protected] or (202) 786-0613.

June 4, 2012 | by USCIRF

One year ago tomorrow, June 5, the Government of Sudan in Khartoum launched its current brutal campaign against the Nuban people, bombarding civilians and denying humanitarian assistance in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states, in gross violation of international human rights and humanitarian law and in defiance of continued UN and United States condemnations.

Interviewing more than 80 refugees from Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states in Yida refugee camp and Juba, South Sudan in October 2011, USCIRF documented reports of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and government-backed militia arresting and killing people in the Nuba Mountains based solely on their religious, ethnic, and political identifications. USCIRF also documented Khartoum's bombing houses of worship and denying humanitarian assistance, leading to nearly half a million people being displaced.

"The situation was dire last October and is far worse today. People have been forced to hide in caves and face starvation, because Khartoum refuses to tolerate Sudan's religious and ethnic diversity,” said Ambassador Jackie Wolcott, USCIRF's Executive Director. "The international community must do its utmost to protect civilians and prevent Khartoum from displacing or slaughtering hundreds of thousands more innocent Sudanese. We cannot remain silent and allow a repeat of Darfur and the North-South civil war.”

Khartoum's aggression began on June 5, 2011 in Southern Kordofan. On September 1, fighting commenced in Blue Nile when Blue Nile Governor and Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) chairman Malik Aggar was illegally removed from his post and his house torched. In early July, President Bashir denounced the Addis Ababa Agreement on political and security arrangements reached just days earlier, and has since banned the SPLM-N and refused to enter into bilateral or multilateral peace negotiations. As the U.S. government warned of near- famine conditions in Southern Kordofan by mid-March, the United Nations, African Union, and Arab League in February proposed humanitarian assistance for the two states. While the SPLM-N agreed to the terms of the tri-party proposal, Sudan has been silent.

"Khartoum is defying the international community by denouncing the African Union-led Addis Ababa Agreement and remaining silent on the tri-party agreement,” said Ambassador Wolcott. "The international community must ratchet up its efforts to protect civilians, continue its calls for peace and unrestricted humanitarian access, and tighten the sanctions regime if Sudan continues breaking its international commitments.”

USCIRF continues to recommend that the U.S. government support a national, inclusive, and transparent constitution drafting convention to address nationwide political and economic injustices, including those in Southern Kordofan and Blue Niles states, as well as religious freedom violations throughout Sudan.

Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile are religiously and ethnically mixed states bordering South Sudan. Many of the Nuban people in Southern Kordofan and in southern Blue Nile sided with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) during Sudan's 20-year North-South civil war. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended the North-South civil war, called for the two states to hold "popular consultations” in 2011 to address core political, cultural, and economic tensions. However there have been no popular consultations and political tensions continued to fester after the North-South civil war ended in 2005.