For Your Information

July 3, 2012| by Katrina Lantos Swett

The following op-ed appeared in Stars and Stripes on July 3, 2012 at www.stripes.com/honor-july-4-by-upholding-first-freedom-1.182008 .

As we celebrate our Declaration of Independence, we are reminded of its powerful proclamation of freedom.

Freedom includes many things but, at its core, it is the right to think as we please, believe or not believe as our conscience dictates, and live out our convictions openly and peacefully. In other words, freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief is central to who we are.

Yet, according to a Pew Research Center study released in August 2011, fully 70 percent of the world"s people live in countries where religious freedom and related rights are severely restricted. Those include some of the most repressive environments in the world.

In China, religious groups that are not approved by the government - from the Falun Gong to the house church movement - are ruthlessly suppressed, while officials crack down brutally on Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims.

In In Iran, an extremist theocracy detains, tortures and executes those who dissent from its dictates. The government targets reformers among the Shiite Muslim majority, as well as members of religious minorities, including Sunni and Sufi Muslims, Baha"is and Christians, and its officials aggressively promote Holocaust denial and other forms of hatred against Jews.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on which I serve, has successfully recommended that these and a number of other nations with similar records be designated as "countries of particular concern.” deeming them among the world"s most serious religious freedom violators.

In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including Article 18, which states the following: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, alone or in community with others, and, in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

In 1966, the governments of 156 countries signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which includes similar words and which the United States ratified in 1992.

Concerned that these agreements were being flouted, and that America"s foreign policy was failing to respond, Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed into law, the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998. IRFA created USCIRF, as well as a religious freedom office with its own ambassador in the State Department.

In taking that action, our country reaffirmed our Declaration of Independence"s insistence that every freedom, including religious freedom, is an unalienable human right.

Research also finds that, across the globe, religious freedom is correlated with robust political democracy, diminished tension and violence, and greater prosperity and stability.

In contrast, nations that abuse religious liberty are often incubators of intolerance and extremism, poverty and insecurity, and violence and further repression.

Thus, standing for freedom of religion or belief isn"t just a legal or moral obligation, but a practical imperative, one that is tied to our own well-being and that of the world.

This is especially important in the post-9/11 world, where the key to countering terrorism, along with its tyranny and violence, is to persuade people not to become terrorists in the first place. But in order to succeed, we must offer a competing vision of liberty, one that holds open the real promise of a peaceful, prosperous way forward.

Backed by international law and treaty, made indispensable by our critical security needs, and supported by our Declaration of Independence, the world"s first freedom deserves our steadfast commitment.

Katrina Lantos Swett is chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

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

March 1, 2012 | by USCIRF

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) renews its call for justice for Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's slain Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, and a longtime religious freedom advocate who was assassinated a year ago today by the Pakistani Taliban.

"Shahbaz Bhatti was murdered on March 2, 2011 for daring to oppose Pakistan's blasphemy law and defending the rights of Pakistan's religious minorities,” said Leonard Leo , USCIRF chair. "Despite Bhatti's being a cabinet member, the Pakistani government has done virtually little to investigate the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice. The United States and the international community must press Pakistan on this case, so that every Pakistani knows that people who commit violence will be held to account and that individuals can stand for religious freedom without risking their lives.”

The only Christian in Pakistan's federal cabinet, Bhatti was assassinated outside his mother's home in Islamabad. Tehrik-i-Taliban, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility. Bhatti had received multiple death threats, including those from Tehrik-i-Taliban, because of his advocacy against the blasphemy law. The investigation into his murder has made little progress, with initial efforts focused on the Christian community and financial disputes with Bhatti's family. The government did not issue an arrest warrant until December 2011 for Pakistanis residing in the Persian Gulf. No one currently is in custody: all of those arrested for suspected involvement have been released.

"Statements reportedly made by some government officials that Bhatti's assassins were not the Pakistani Taliban are preposterous. The Pakistani Taliban explicitly took credit for assassinating Shahbaz who was killed for his religious freedom advocacy. Pakistan's government must end this charade and bring the real killers to justice,” said Leo.

"The culture of violence that grips Pakistan threatens both Muslims and members of minority religious communities, and the very foundation of that society. Pakistan's government must find the resolve to bring the killers to justice and repudiate the culture of impunity that has plagued Pakistan,” said Leo. "Failure to do so reinforces USCIRF's recommendation that Pakistan be designated a ‘country of particular concern" for its egregious violations of religious freedom.”

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact Paul Liben at [email protected] or (703) 870-6041.

February 16, 2012 | by Felice D. Gaer and Richard D. Land

The following article appeared in the Des Moines Register yesterday. 

When Vice President Xi Jinping, China"s future president, visited the White House this week, President Obama should have pressed him to reveal the whereabouts of China"s famed human rights and religious freedom attorney and other dissidents who have disappeared while in Chinese custody.

Gao vanished three years ago this month. His "crime” was defending Falun Gong practitioners and arrested Christians, while peacefully promoting democracy. Gao suffered horrendous torture which his captors reportedly videotaped and showed to other detained dissidents. Due to protests from abroad, China allowed Gao to resurface in April 2010, but he has not been heard from since.

Gao"s story is not unusual. China has a troubled human rights record which has worsened over the past year. Haunted by the fate of its counterparts in Eastern Europe and Russia, China"s Communist Party allegedly fears that peaceful advocates for fundamental rights, especially religious freedom, will weaken Beijing"s control. China has forcibly "disappeared” advocates like Gao, and it jailed its Nobel Prize laurate Liu Xiaobo and vilified the Dalai Lama as a terrorist.

Religious freedom advocates are no strangers to Chinese prisons. Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, Falun Gong, and many Catholics and Protestants face prison terms and other sanctions, including destruction of property, torture and control over key doctrines and selecting leaders. China deems them a threat because it doesn"t control their conscience.

This reality is a continued roadblock in U.S.-China relations and for religious freedom advocacy. The visit of China"s future president offers a chance to remove this barrier. During Xi Jinping"s stops in Washington, Iowa and Los Angeles, Americans should call for the release of Gao Zhisheng and others who languish in prison or have been "disappeared” for their religious beliefs.

Among the others who have "disappeared” are Bishops Su Zhimin and Shi Enxiang, leaders of the underground Catholic Church. Both had spent decades in prison for their faith and later vanished, without notice or trial, more than a decade ago.

Another example is Gendun Choekyi Nyima, who had been designated in 1995 as the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibetan Buddhism. Since the Dalai Lama had chosen him, China "disappeared” the 6-year-old boy and installed another as the Panchen Lama. Gendun Choekyi Nyima is now 22 and authorities still won"t reveal where he is.

Gao Zhisheng, Bishops Su Zhimin and Shi Enxiang, and Gendun Choekyi Nyima are but four individuals forcibly "disappeared” due to their religious activity or religious freedom advocacy. They are a compelling representation in the panopoly of China"s human rights abuses.

In 2008, the United Nations Committee against Torture called on China to "adopt all necessary easures to prohibit and prevent enforced disappearances, to shed light on the fate of missing persons, including Gendun Choekyi Nyima, and prosecute and punish perpetrators, as this practice constitutes per se, a violation of the Convention [against Torture],” which China has ratified.

Chinese leaders claim they arrest dissidents to keep China stable and secure. But especially in a vast and diverse nation like China, it is impossible to create lasting stability by trampling on freedom of thought, religion and conscience. Only by honoring such freedoms can China build harmony from its diversity. By citing the "disappeared,” President Obama can stress that for China to reap the benefits of full engagement with the United States and the world community, it should give such individuals their unconditional rights to freedom.

Perhaps Xi Jinping can be persuaded to break from China"s past and let freedom flourish if he is shown how it is in China"s best interests. From President Obama on down, he must hear that no relationship with any country can be truly productive without a mutual respect for the rights of humanity, including the bedrock right to freedom of religion or belief.

Felice D. Gaer and Richard D. Land serve as commissioners on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, contact Paul Liben at [email protected] or (703) 870-6041.