FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2007

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

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom emphasizes its grave concern about the growing Iraqi refugee crisis that has seen more than 1.8 million people displaced from their homes inside Iraq and close to 2 million forced to take refuge outside their homeland. The Commission has raised this issue repeatedly in recent years and urges the U.S. government to take decisive action to accommodate more Iraqi refugees in this country.

The Commission notes with interest that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently established a task force on Iraqi refugees and that the U.S. agreed to take in up to 7,000 displaced Iraqis this year and increase the amount of aid to refugees living in countries neighboring Iraq. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is convening a conference in April to address the humanitarian and protection needs of Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons. We call on the U.S. to take a leadership role in this conference.

Yet the Commission regards these measures as inadequate to respond to the alarming situation and calls on the U.S. government to do more.

"The United States must act immediately to identify the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees and move quickly to resettle them in the United States," said Felice D. Gaer, chair of the Commission.

Among the most vulnerable are Chaldo-Assyrians, Sabean Mandaeans and Yazidis, who make up a disproportionately large number of refugees from Iraq. These religious minorities report that they are targeted because they do not conform with Muslim practices or are perceived as working for the U.S.-led multinational forces. Members of these communities have been targeted in violent attacks, including murder, torture, abductions for ransom and reportedly for forced conversion, rape and destruction of community property. Additionally, in the sectarian strife that has engulfed Iraq, members of many Muslim communities have suffered attacks by their rivals.

According to the Iraqi Ministry for Migration and Displacement, nearly half the members of Iraq's non-Muslim minorities have fled abroad. The UNHCR estimates that these minorities, who account for 3 percent of the population, comprise about a third of the Iraqis who have sought sanctuary outside their country.

"As a nation founded by those fleeing repression, we must find room in our hearts and communities to help these uprooted people," Gaer said.

The Commission recommends that the U.S. State Department:

• develop strategies for protecting vulnerable religious minorities within Iraq;
• urgently consider opening a priority category that would accelerate the processing of asylum applications from Iraqi minority members and would not require referral from the UNHCR, which can be time-consuming. Options include P-2 categorization for members of particularly vulnerable groups and expanded family reunification efforts for refugees with relatives in the United States;
• ensure that Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities scheduled to be resettled to the U.S. are not unnecessarily delayed because of lengthy background screening procedures, and implement a policy that actions taken under duress do not constitute material support for terrorism, which is a bar to refugee resettlement; and
• work with the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to begin conducting in-country processing for vulnerable Iraqis who are unable to safely leave the country.

The Commission urges the U.S. Congress to:

• fully fund the $20 million budget request from the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to increase the ability to resettle Iraqi refugees in the United States; and
• provide the State Department with the funds necessary to contribute to and encourage other nations to contribute funds to the UNHCR so that the organization receives the full $60 million requested for its special appeal on Iraq.

Finally, the Commission urges the U.S. government to encourage the UNHCR to:

• ensure that vulnerable groups such as religious minorities have access to UNHCR and to consideration for resettlement;
• resume for all Iraqis full Refugee Status Determinations in Turkey and invigorate refugee registrations in Syria and Jordan;
• substantially increase the number of referrals to the United States and other resettlement countries in order to preserve first asylum through burden sharing, to protect the most vulnerable refugees, and to reunite refugees with their families; and
• convene a regional conference to address the Iraqi refugee problem, ensuring that Turkey, Syria and Jordan are included.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan federal agency established by Congress in 1998 to review violations of the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad.

In 2004, the Commission raised with President George W. Bush the drastic effect of escalating religious violence on Iraq's ancient Christian and other minorities. We heard more about the downward spiraling situation from representatives of Iraqi Chaldo-Assyrian refugees with whom a Commission delegation met in Turkey last fall.

We then wrote to Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky about the urgent need to provide members of religious minorities who have fled Iraq with access to the U.S. refugee program. In December, the Commission published an op-ed on the subject in The Washington Times, which helped spur Congressional hearings and led to the decision to establish the task force on Iraqi refugees.

We are convinced that now is the time for urgent action on protecting Iraqi religious minorities both inside and outside their homeland.

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
March 8, 2007

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

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom calls on the Russian government to withdraw or substantially modify its amended law regulating non-governmental organizations, as outlined in a new, in-depth legal analysis released in advance of the legislation's implementation. According to the Commission study, the law places disturbing restrictions on NGOs and further circumscribes the already limited role the government grants civil society in a country where democracy is under increasing threat.

The report, Challenge to Civil Society: Russia's Amended Law on Noncommercial Organizations, provides the first detailed legal analysis of the legislation and its impact.

"Key elements of the law are vague and open to arbitrary and discretionary interpretation and enforcement, in many areas resulting in a dramatic expansion in government powers," said Felice D. Gaer, the Commission chair.

"Repeal of the law would alleviate most of the concerns raised by this report. At a minimum, the Russian government should amend or clarify problematic provisions and regulations ... in a manner that ensures the law's respect for international norms related to freedom of association, freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief, and related human rights," Gaer states in the introduction.

Based on material drawn from a Commission delegation visit to Russia and subsequent research, the report concludes that the law raises profound concerns for the continued viability of a diverse and representative civil society in Russia. Further, it will increase significantly the involvement of Russian officials in the formation of civil society organizations and the way in which these organizations raise money, plan and initiate programs and activities. Some of the NGO law's provisions also directly limit the human rights of members of religious communities, including charitable activities, and have had a chilling-if not freezing-effect on the overall climate for human rights monitoring.

The Commission also recommends that the law's implementation should be closely and independently monitored. This should include the law's impact on religious organizations, which along with all domestic NGOs are required to file their first reports on their activities and finances to the Russian government on April 15.

It further recommends that the Russian government:

• Develop and implement regulations that clarify and sharply limit the state's discretion to interfere with the activities of NGOs, including religious groups. These regulations should be developed in accordance with international standards and in conformance with international best practices, including recommendations made in the Council of Europe's Provisional Opinion on the NGO law.
• Establish an accountability mechanism for Federal Registration Service personnel independent of the FRS to review and/or prevent arbitrary and excessive misuse of powers curtailing NGO activities, and ensure that this mechanism provides NGOs with the ability to lodge complaints to trigger an accountability process.
• Publish precise and transparent statistical data on a regular basis regarding FRS activities related to implementation and enforcement of the NGO law.
• Consult with civil society groups, Russia's Human Rights Ombudsman and the Council on the Institutions of Civil Society and Human Rights on their findings regarding implementation of the law and reassess, within a reasonable time period, necessary amendments and/or other changes to the law as required.
• Establish an independent NGO Legal Assistance Fund dedicated to paying for legal appeals brought by NGOs in response to state actions such as denial of registration, warning letters, or other acts designed to curtail and/or prevent legitimate NGO activities, including initiation of liquidation proceedings or removal from the registry.
• Ensure that all data related to the NGO law, including information available on official Russian web sites, is accurate and up to date. For example, the comparative study of NGO laws prepared by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of Information and Press should be amended or removed because it is inaccurate in many instances.

The Commission has also recently published Policy Focus Russia. That report notes that political authoritarianism, rising nationalism, officially tolerated xenophobia and intolerance, and the sometimes arbitrary official response to domestic security concerns are jeopardizing human rights in Russia, all of which are essential for the protection of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief. Those trends are having a particularly harsh impact on Russia's Muslims and other religious and ethnic minorities.

The Commission was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor violations of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief abroad and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State and Congress. Since its inception, the Commission has focused on Russia because of the increasingly tenuous status of human rights as well as Russia's role as an example for other post-Soviet republics and countries in transition.

Robert Blitt was the principal researcher and drafter of the NGO study, along with Tad Stahnke, deputy director for policy. Catherine Cosman, senior policy analyst, drafted Policy Focus Russia.

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.