FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 25, 2004

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

WASHINGTON - Press reports coming out of the Six Party Talks currently underway in Beijing suggest that the United States and other parties to the talks - China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea - are preparing to move forward with humanitarian and economic assistance on the basis of security concessions alone from North Korea. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has concluded that the Six Party Talks provide an opportunity for the United States to address the North Korean regime's atrocious human rights actions by linking nuclear security and human security. The agenda of the Six Party Talks should be expanded to include human rights and refugee issues.

Pyongyang has reportedly indicated in recent months that it expects the Six Party Talks to lead not only to security guarantees but also to economic, humanitarian, and energy assistance. This offers a real chance to link any promised aid on tough and verifiable agreements in such areas as family reunification, food security, and refugee protection and human rights, including religious freedom.

"Neither quiet diplomacy nor public shame has provided the leverage needed to improve the lives of ordinary North Koreans. In fact, in the past several years, famines, food shortages, and asylum seekers have created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Any security pact that allows the North Korean regime a free hand to commit further atrocities is both a strategic and moral failure. It is unconscionable for the United States to buy peace without acting to end the slaughter and starvation of innocents in North Korea," said USCIRF Chair Michael K. Young.

The North Korean regime is one of the world's worst violators of human rights. Evidence of this is already well-documented. Kim Jong Il, and his father Kim Il Sung, have systematically starved millions, forced hundreds of thousands into a vast labor camp system, and stamped out all vestiges of free religious practice. The North Korean military recently lowered height requirements for adult male conscripts from 4 feet, 11 inches to 4 feet, 2 inches due to widespread stunted growth in the population.

As policy-makers search for a solution to North Korea's nuclear blackmail they must consider the ways that the regime's human rights abuses are a cause of regional instability. North Korea has abducted hundreds of Japanese and South Korean citizens to train as spies or to use as pawns in diplomatic negotiations. The dire situation in North Korea has also led up to 300,000 North Koreans to flee to China where they live without international protections and in constant fear of arrest and possible execution if repatriated.

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 17, 2004

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

Implications for U.S. Policy

Please join us for an on-the-record conversation about the implementation since 1999 of Sharia in northern Nigeria, the rise of Islamic extremism, and the state of Muslim-Christian relations. John Paden, professor of international studies at George Mason University, is a noted Africanist and one of the world's leading scholars on Northern Nigeria. He is the author of a recent study on "Islam and Democratic Federalism in Nigeria."

WHO:Professor John Paden, George Mason University

WHEN:3PM Wednesday, February 18, 2004

WHERE:The Offices of The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, 800 North Capitol Street, NW STE 790, Washington, DC 20002

CONTACT:David Dettoni, Deputy Director for Outreach, 202-523-3253 202-523-3253

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 17, 2004

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

MEDIA ADVISORY - FOREIGN MEDIA ONLY

USCIRF Chair Young Press Conference on CPCs

WASHINGTON - U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Chair Michael K. Young will hold a press conference for foreign media on Wednesday, February 18, at the State Department's Foreign Press Center to discuss the Commission's recommendations to Secretary of State Colin Powell on countries of particular concern (CPCs). The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) requires that the Secretary of State identify those governments that engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom, designate them as "countries of particular concern" (CPCs), and implement meaningful policy in response to such designations. The IRFA also requires the Secretary of State to take into account the Commission's recommendations.

The Commission has recommended to Secretary Powell that he designate the following 11 countries as CPCs for the systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom that the governments are responsible for or have tolerated: Burma, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Eritrea, India*, Iran, Pakistan, People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. The State Department has not yet named Eritrea, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan or Vietnam.

CPC designation carries an obligation that one or more of certain actions specified in Section 405 of the IRFA be taken, unless the President determines that pre-existing sanctions are adequate or otherwise waives the requirement. For every country named a CPC to date, the only official actions taken have been to invoke already existing sanctions rather than to take additional action to advance religious freedom pursuant to IRFA.

"We strongly urge Secretary Powell to name those countries that have not yet been designated and to engage these governments in as many ways as possible in order to better promote religious freedom in these countries. We particularly encourage use of the policy tools outlined in International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA). Moreover, the Commission has made specific policy recommendations on China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam, and we encourage him to give special attention to those recommendations," said USCIRF Chair Michael K. Young.

WHEN:Wednesday, February 18, 1:00-1:45 p.m.

WHERE:State Department Foreign Press Center

National Press Club building

529 14th Street NW, Room 800 (8th floor)

*Commissioners Bansal, Gaer, and Young dissent from the Commission's recommendation that India be designated a country of particular concern (CPC). Their views with respect to India are reflected in a separate opinion. Commissioner Chaput also joins this separate opinion, and would place India on the Watch List rather than recommend that it be designated a CPC.

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.