FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 6, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127

WASHINGTON-As the United States begins bilateral discussions with the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea (DPRK), the bipartisan, federal United States Commission on International Religious Freedom urges the U.S. government to place long-standing human rights, humanitarian, and refugee concerns squarely on the negotiating table.

"The current discussions provide a historic opportunity to address urgent issues of concern," said Felice D. Gaer, Chair of the Commission. "The U.S. should tie future consideration of economic assistance or diplomatic recognition to reforms that will increase the freedoms of North Koreans and strengthen the security of the Korean Peninsula."

North Koreans live in a closed society that permits no dissent and strictly curtails freedoms of speech, press, religion and assembly. The government views religious belief as a potential competitor to the officially propagated cult of personality centered on Kim Jong Il and his late father, Kim Il Sung. North Korean officials have arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and sometimes executed those discovered engaging in clandestine religious activity.

"Refugees, famine, and the violent repression of religious belief and practice are transnational and human rights problems that will continue to destabilize the Korean peninsula. That is why the human rights and humanitarian crises in North Korea deserve to be treated on a parallel track with security issues involving weapons of mass destruction and should not be marginalized," said Gaer. "The DPRK should know that one of the obligations that come with joining the international community, and receiving international aid, is making verifiable commitments on a variety of pressing human security issues."

The Commission continues to recommend that the U.S. work with its regional and European allies to fashion a permanent framework that addresses both human rights and other security and economic concerns on the Korean Peninsula, modeled on the Helsinki Process. Such a framework should contain agreements on ways to monitor the delivery of humanitarian and economic aid, provide refugee resettlement and protection, facilitate family reunification, and address other pressing human rights issues, including religious freedom.

The Commission, a bipartisan, independent federal agency, is mandated by Congress to monitor abuse of freedom of religion or belief and related human rights around the world and to make recommendations to the President, State Department and Congress on ways to address religious freedom concerns.

Since its inception in 1999, the Commission has closely followed human rights developments in North Korea. Since 2001, it has recommended that North Korea be designated as a "country of particular concern" (under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998) and the Administration has done so since that year.

The Commission published "Thank You, Father Kim Il Sung": Eyewitness Accounts of Severe Violations of Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion in North Korea, a report based on interviews with 40 former North Koreans who recently fled to China and South Korea. Two of the people testified that they had witnessed public executions of people accused of engaging in unauthorized religious activities. The regime maintains a brutal system of prison camps that house an estimated 200,000 political inmates, who are subject to slave labor, torture and execution.

The Commission publishes an annual assessment of human rights conditions in North Korea. The Commission has also sponsored discussions with the Asia Society and the American Enterprise Institute to consider policy options for addressing human rights and security concerns within the Six-Party Talks, and conducted hearings on North Korea in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere.

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 16, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127

-EVENT ADVISORY-

Turkey: USCIRF/Wilson Center Panel Discussion on Turkish Attitudes Toward Religion and Politics

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in cooperation with the Southeast Europe Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, invites you to a panel discussion on "Religion and Politics in Turkey: a Survey of Turkish Attitudes" on Monday, February 26 from 3:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. The discussion will focus on the findings of a recent country-wide poll by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV).

During a Commission trip to Turkey in November 2006, the delegation heard a preliminary report on the TESEV poll. The meeting Monday will offer an opportunity to more fully discuss the poll findings and hear the views of experts in Washington's policy and academic communities.

Introduction:

Felice D. Gaer, Chair, USCIRF
Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou, Vice-Chair, USCIRF

Panelists:

Dr. Can Paker, Chairman, TESEV, and Chairman, Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation in Turkey
Etyen Mahcupyan, Director, Democratization Program, TESEV, and columnist

Moderator:

Dr. Henri J. Barkey, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Centerand Bernard and Bertha Cohen Professor of International Relations, Lehigh University

5th Floor Conference Room
Woodrow Wilson Center
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington DC 20004

RSVP Acceptances only,  [email protected]

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 13, 2007

Contact:
Judith Ingram , Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 127

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
United States Department of State
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Rice:

On behalf of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, I am writing to congratulate you on the formation of the Iraq Refugee and Internally Displaced Persons Task Force. For some time, the Commission has argued that the increasing numbers of IDPs and Iraqi refugees in the region demand urgent U.S. attention.

The Commission urges you to make the question of Iraqi refugee resettlement one of your top priorities on the agenda in your upcoming meeting with UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres this week. It is our understanding that the U.S. government and UNHCR are in discussions regarding Iraqi refugee resettlement to the United States and that UNHCR is looking to resettle approximately 20,000 Iraqi refugees here. In particular, the Commission urges that Iraqis fleeing religious persecution, particularly ChaldoAssyrians, Sabean Mandaeans and Yazidis, be given access to the U.S. Refugee Program and included in this 20,000. Specifically, because of the well-documented threats these groups face in Iraq, the Commission recommends that you:

• Create new or expand existing options for allowing members of Iraq's ChaldoAssyrian, Sabean Mandaean and Yazidi religious minority communities to access the U.S. refugee program. The Visa 92/93 and Priority Three (P-3) programs are too narrowly focused and unnecessarily limit opportunities for family reunification;
• Assure the UNHCR that it can count on the United States to play a leading role in contributing the resources necessary to preserve first asylum for Iraqis and provide resettlement places; and
• Urge that UNHCR take more proactive measures to ensure that the most vulnerable Iraqis in need of resettlement are identified and referred without undue delay.

Although they comprise only three percent of the population, UNHCR has estimated that ChaldoAssyrians and Sabean Mandaeans constitute up to 40 percent of all registered refugees and the International Organization for Migration estimates they constitute seven percent of all IDPs.

Knowing your concern for human rights and the plight of Iraqi refugees in the region, the Commission urges you to act on the above recommendations. This issue belongs on the agenda along with the refugee crisis in Darfur and the deplorable situation of North Koreans in China, problems the Commission has in the past reported on and written to you about.

Thank you very much for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Felice D. Gaer

Chair

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.