FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 29, 2006

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WASHINGTON- U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Vice Chair Nina Shea will testify before the House International Relations (HIRC) Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations on Friday, June 30 at 9:30 a.m. in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building at a hearing titled "The Plight of Religious Minorities: Can Religious Pluralism Survive?"

Commissioner Shea's testimony will focus on religious freedom conditions in five countries - Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - as well as recommendations for U.S. policy.

Commissioner Shea, who has served on the Commission since it began its work in 1999, has been an international human rights lawyer for 25 years and is director of the Center for Religious Freedom, a division of Freedom House.

The full text of Commissioner Shea's testimony will be available immediately following the hearing on the Commission's web site at www.uscirf.gov.

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
June 16, 2006

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240 (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WASHINGTON - A delegation of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) will be in Russia June 17-28 to meet with a broad range of official and nongovernmental interlocutors on xenophobia and hate crimes targeting Jews, Muslims and other minority religious groups, and the implementation of laws and regulations on religious affairs. The delegation will visit Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan.

The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan federal commission that advises the President, Secretary of State, and Congress on how to promote religious freedom and related human rights around the world. It was created by the U.S. Congress in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA). It consists of nine Commissioners appointed by the President and Congress.

As part of its annual deliberative process, the Commission assesses religious freedom conditions first hand. In the past, USCIRF has sent official delegations to Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Eritrea, Laos, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, among other countries.

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
June 16, 2006

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WASHINGTON - U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Vice Chair Nina Shea will moderate a panel on the status of religious freedom around the world as part of Religious Freedom Day on Capitol Hill, which will take place in the Senate Dirksen Office Building, Room G50, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 20.

Senator Rick Santorum, Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, is hosting the event.

Other speakers and panelists include John Hanford, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and ex-officio USCIRF Commissioner, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former USCIRF Commissioner John Bolton, Senators Sam Brownback and Norm Coleman, Congressman Trent Franks and Congressman Todd Akin, William J. Murray of the Religious Freedom Coalition and Paul Marshall of the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House.

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.