FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 8, 2006

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

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the appointment by Secretary Michael Chertoff of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) first Senior Refugee and Asylum Policy Advisor. The appointment comes on the first anniversary of the release of USCIRF's congressionally-authorized study recommending the creation of such a position. The Commission urged Secretary Chertoff to establish such a post when it met with him on April 7, 2005.

"The appointment of a Senior Refugee and Asylum Policy Advisor marks an essential first step for the Department of Homeland Security to resolve the problems we identified and ensure that legitimate asylum seekers will be treated with dignity, fairness, and consistency," said USCIRF Chair Michael Cromartie. "Several of those problems persist because there has not been any senior official assigned to coordinate asylum policy among the three DHS bureaus entrusted with protecting asylum seekers. The Commission urges Secretary Chertoff to ensure that Mr. Igor Timofeyev -- the newly appointed Advisor--will be given the necessary authority and resources to take decisive action on the other findings and recommendations of the Study."

The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 authorized the Commission to appoint experts to study whether the Expedited Removal process is sufficiently protecting legitimate asylum seekers. Congress asked for the Study to examine whether asylum seekers subject to Expedited Removal are being detained improperly or under inappropriate conditions and whether they are being returned to countries where they might face persecution.

The Study found that Expedited Removal - a process implemented in 1997 to "expeditiously remove" certain improperly documented aliens without a hearing - was intended by Congress to protect the integrity of our borders while also protecting bona fide asylum seekers. The Study, however, identified serious implementing flaws which place legitimate asylum seekers at risk of being returned to countries where they may face persecution. The Study also found that bona fide asylum seekers were almost certain to be detained inappropriately by DHS under jail-like conditions and in actual jails. In some facilities, asylum seekers slept alongside convicted criminals serving time or criminal aliens awaiting deportation.

The USCIRF Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal is available 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
February 1, 2006

Audio(Windows Media Player 9.0+)
Written Transcript

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

WASHINGTON - The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today hosted a public roundtable discussion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace entitled "Assessing U.S. Human Rights Policy Towards Russia." The roundtable reviewed how the U.S. government should be responding to the rollback in human rights, including religious freedom, in Russia and increasing Russian nationalism. The event was also held to prepare for upcoming Commission delegations to Russia.

Since its inception, the Commission has monitored and reported on the status of freedom of religion or belief in the Russian Federation. Russia has been of consistent concern to the Commission not so much because of the severity of the country's religious freedom violations, but rather due to its fragile human rights situation, including that of religious freedom. Of primary concern are the trends which have emerged in the past few years which raise serious questions about Russia's commitment to democratic reform and the protection of religious freedom. This is also critical because Russia continues to be a model, especially for other former Soviet states and other nations struggling to establish democratic systems after a history of despotism.

Current curtailments in media freedom and in the role of political parties, as well as legal restrictions on freedom of assembly, popular referenda and the end to popular election of regional governors, all reveal that progress towards democracy is being halted, if not reversed. Most, if not all, of the concerns about freedom of religion or belief raised by the Commission appear to be directly related to the growing influence of authoritarian, and perhaps even chauvinistic, strains in the Russian government. The country's progress, based on the rule of law, the protection of human rights, and democratic freedoms, is now in peril.

Commentators at the roundtable were:

Mark Medish, Partner, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld; former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director on the National Security Council for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs; and member of the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S.-Russian Relations.

Michael McFaul, Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, associate professor of political science at Stanford University and director of the Center on Democracy, Development, the Rule of Law; Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and member of the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S.-Russian relations.

Catherine Fitzpatrick, U.N. representative for Physicians for Human Rights and independent human rights analyst.

Nikolas K. Gvosdev, Senior Fellow in Strategic Studies at The Nixon Center and Editor ofThe National Interest.

Witness testimony and a transcript of the hearing will be made available on the Commission's web site at www.uscirf.gov after the event.

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
July 27, 2006

Contact:
Angela Stephens, Assistant Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 14

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is deeply concerned about the proposed establishment in Afghanistan of a Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, an organization reminiscent of one used by the Taliban to enforce its strict religious codes through public beatings, imprisonment, torture, and execution, including stoning to death. Women, non-Muslims, and Muslims who dissented in any way from the strain of state-enforced Islamicorthodoxy were the particular victims of the Vice and Virtue squad, though few in Afghanistan were spared its arbitrary and heinous abuses.

"The U.S. government should make clear to the government of Afghanistan its staunch opposition to this proposal," Commission Chair Felice D. Gaer said. "It should oppose any official state entity that will result in violations of the religious freedom rights of Afghanistan's citizens and make clear the view that such entities are widely associated with coercion and restrictions of religious freedom. In addition, the U.S. government should ensure that no U.S. assistance goes to support this new department," Gaer said.

The creation of a new Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was reportedly proposed by Afghanistan's Ulema, or council of Muslim clerics, and has been endorsed by the cabinet of President Hamid Karzai. It has now been referred for approval to the country's parliament, which is scheduled to reconvene at the end of July. Afghanistan's Deputy Minister for Religious Affairs has been quoted as stating that the new Vice and Virtue agency will not be the same as that under the Taliban. He claims that this new department will not involve a special police force empowered to beat and imprison violators. Instead, it will be aimed, according to the Deputy Minister, at promoting religious values through "education, preaching, and encouragement."

Nevertheless, the Commission has several concerns that the creation of such a government institution in Afghanistan charged with the promotion of religious adherence tostate-imposedorthodoxy could amount effectively to a religious police force that will:

• violate Afghan citizens' universal right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief, including the right to be free from state compulsion with regard to religious worship and practice;
• abridge the human rights of Afghan women and girls;
• impose political conformity and stifle political debate about human rights and political freedom in Afghanistan, as well as the role of religion in Afghan law and society; and
• arbitrarily determine the "correct" nature of religious adherence and what constitutes a "violation"-a significant problem given the wide variety of doctrines and practices that exist within the majority Muslim community in Afghanistan.

Moreover, if it is criminality that this proposed agency is being created to address, such offenses should be dealt with under existing criminal statutes by the country's police force.

These concerns are not merely theoretical, since in the past year in Afghanistan, several very troubling cases exemplifying the absence of legal protections for fundamental rights came before the courts. In October 2005, an Afghan journalist and editor was found guilty of blasphemy and "insulting Islam" after he raised questions about discrimination against women and the use of certain harsh punishments under traditional Islamic law. His two-year term was reduced to a six-month suspended sentence, but only after he apologized to the court. In March 2006, an Afghan citizen was arrested and threatened with execution on the charge of changing his religion. In the face of a massive international outcry about the case, the court dismissed the charges against him, but concerns about his personal safety forced him to seek asylum abroad.

"The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was responsible for some of the most egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief in Afghanistan under the Taliban," said Gaer. "The re-emergence of a government department that could impose religious doctrine is a profoundly disturbing development that imperils the institution of democracy in Afghanistan. This development cannot be one envisioned by those who fought to see the Taliban removed from power."

Last May, the Commission placed Afghanistan on its Watch List of countries that merit heightened attention by the U.S. government for religious freedom violations. Establishment of a Vice and Virtue agency is the kind of regressive action that the Commission feared would tip the balance away from protections for human rights. This development is of particular concern because, as the Commission has consistently noted, Afghanistan's constitution does not guarantee the individual right to religious freedom and empowers the judicial system to enforce Islamic law. The result is that the new constitution does not fully protect individual Afghan citizens who dissent from state-imposed orthodoxy against unjust accusations of religious "crimes" such as apostasy and blasphemy. A new government department tasked with promoting virtue and preventing vice would only further exacerbate these disturbing legal weaknesses.

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.