United States Commission on International Religious Freedom

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The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom ( USCIRF ) is a federal government agency of the United States established by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 . USCIRF commissioners are appointed by the President of the United States and the leadership of both parties in the Senate and House of Representatives . The main tasks of this commission are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make political recommendations to the President, the Foreign Minister and the Congress .

history

The commission has its roots in the United States evangelicalism movement. The commission was formed on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad and was established in 1996 by then Secretary of State Warren Christopher . Christopher's original intention was to protect Christians around the world. Among the members of the advisory committee were located Barnett Rubin of the Council on Foreign Relations and Diana Eck , a past with the World Council of Churches ( World Council of Churches had). While the members of the committee included Muslims , Jews and Christians, there were no Hindus . Eck and Rubin had a history with a focus on India .

Organizations such as Christian Solidarity International , International Christian Concern , Open Doors and the Cardinal Kung Foundation as well as the lawyer Michael Horowitz had an influence on the establishment of the International Religious Freedom Act . Hillary Clinton is a member of C Street House or The Family network , which is an evangelical Christian group.

In 1997, that gave United States Department of State under Madeleine Albright a report entitled "United States policies in support of Religious Freedom: Focus on Christians" (US policy in support of religious freedom: Focus on Christians) out of the focus of the Foreign Ministry highlights Christianity. The advisory committee then recommended the establishment of the Office for International Religious Freedom. The Office reported, “The Advisory Committee is pleased that some of these recommendations have been implemented. One of the most important recommendations that have been achieved is the establishment of a new office for international religious freedom within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ”.

Following the recommendations of the Advisory Committee, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 approved the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom , which established:

  • An office for international religious freedom in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the direction of a special envoy for international religious freedom
  • A mandate for the Foreign Ministry to prepare an annual report on international religious freedom
  • A requirement to designate the most egregious violators of freedom of belief as Countries of Particular Concern and take policies in response to all violations of religious freedom as a specific element of United States foreign policy , cultural exchange and international broadcast programs to take.
  • The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)

The legislature authorizing USCIRF stated that the commission would be dissolved on September 30, 2011 unless the commission was reappointed or was temporarily renewed. Congress granted several extensions, but they would have expired on Friday, December 16, 2011 at 5:00 p.m., had the Commission not been awarded another seven-year term (until 2018) on the morning of December 16. This happened after a new draft law, which had been passed by both houses with two amendments. The Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois had secretly retained the earlier version of the bill, and the changes were the condition for the release of the draft legislation. Durbin released him on December 13th after the revisions were made. The amendments stipulated that the commissioners' term of office would be two years and that they would have the same travel restrictions as foreign ministry workers.

Duties and Responsibilities

The commission researches and monitors international issues of religious freedom. The Commission is empowered to travel to other countries on investigative missions and to hold public hearings.

It publishes a report on May 1st every year. This annual report follows a report by the Department of Foreign Affairs on International Religious Freedom, which identifies countries that have seriously violated religious freedom, and intends to discuss the Department of Foreign Affairs report and expand it in more detail.

Commissioners

The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 provides that the commission consists of ten members:

The International Religious Freedom Act provides that "Members of the Commission shall be selected from among outstanding individuals known for their knowledge and experience in relevant areas of international religious freedom, including foreign affairs, face-to-face experience, human rights and international rights ". The commissioners are not paid for their work at the commission, but receive a travel budget and 15 staff. The appointments of the commissioners are for a period of two years and they are entitled to reappointment.

As of March 2016, the commissioners were:

  1. Robert P. George (Chairman), also Professor at Princeton University
  2. M. Zuhdi Jasser (Vice Chairman), also President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy
  3. James J. Zogby (Vice Chairman), also President of the Arab American Institute
  4. Mary Ann Glendon (Commissioner), also a professor at Harvard University
  5. Eric P. Schwartz (Commissioner), also Dean of the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota
  6. Daniel I. Mark (Commissioner), also a professor at Villanova University
  7. Thomas J. Reese (Commissioner), also senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter newspaper
  8. Hannah Rosenthal (Commissioner), also President of the Jewish Association in Milwaukee
  9. Katrina Lantos Swett (Commissioner), also President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice

The special ambassador of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for International Religious Freedom serves as an ex-officio , non-voting member of the commission. As of 2014, the ambassador was David Saperstein.

Former commissioners included: Preeta D. Bansal, John Hanford, Khaled Abou El Fadl, Charles J. Chaput , Michael K. Young, Firuz Kazemzadeh, Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli, John R. Bolton , Elliot Abrams, Felice D. Gaer, Azizah Y. al-Hibri, Leonard Leo, and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention .

criticism

India

The Commission identified India as a Country of Special Concern in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010 and placed India on a watch list. The Indian press criticized their report. The Pioneer magazine called the matter "fiction", "biased" and a "big lie" in an editorial. The magazine criticized USCIRF for portraying the Godhra railway bombing as an accident. She also accused USCIRF of indirectly justifying the murder of Swami Lakshamananda Saraswati, a Hindu cleric and social activist. An analysis of the 2014 commission report criticizes USCIRF for promoting religious discord between Hindus and Buddhists, purging terrorist acts, and falsely blaming a monk for bombing Bodhgaya .

Christian leaders in Odisha defended India. Archbishop Raphael Cheenath stated that India has a secular character, that the President of the Odisha Minority Forum , despite a small hate campaign against minorities, is "warm and supportive" of the majority of society, and the Orissa Secular Front despite the unrest of 2002 and 2008 have a strong secular foundation.

Egypt

Before the commission's visit to Egypt in 2001, some leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church protested in Egypt and viewed the visit as a form of American imperialism. For example, Mounir Azmi, a member of the Coptic Community Council, said that despite the problems faced by Copts, the visit was a "heinous campaign against Egypt" and was not helpful. Another reviewer called the visit "foreign intervention in our internal affairs". If the USCIRF were able to work with the Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenuda III. and Mohamed Sayed Tantawy from al-Azhar University , but others refused to meet the delegation. Hisham Kassem, chairman of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, said that insisting on the rights of Christians in Egypt could be counterproductive as it could potentially anger Muslims.

Laos

The US Special Envoy for International Religious Freedom, Robert A. Seiple, criticized USCIRF for placing more emphasis on punishing persecution than on promoting freedom of belief. In Seiple's view, USCIRF “only cursed the darkness”. Seiple, for example, highlights the Commission's decision in 2002 to designate Laos as a country of particular concern despite having released prisoners of faith. Seiple further explained about USCIRF: “... what was erroneously designed and delivered chaotically is now irrelevant. If the commission doesn't find candles soon, Congress should turn out the lights. "

The commission replied that despite the releases, the Marxist Pathet Lao government in Laos still had systemic obstacles to religious freedom, such as laws that allowed religious activities only with the consent of Pathet Lao government officials and laws that allowed the government to do so to determine whether a religious community agrees with its own teaching.

Other non-governmental organizations, religious freedom and human rights advocates, political experts and members of Congress defended the research work of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and various reports of the increasing and serious persecution by the Pathet Lao government in Laos, before the controversial criticism of Seiple. They pointed to potential conflicts of interest as Seiple, or a nonprofit affiliated with Seiple, reportedly received grants from U.S. State Department officials in an attempt to address what appeared to be the heightened persecution of beliefs and widespread human rights abuses by the Laos government and to reduce the Lao Armed Forces .

Christian prejudice and other issues

The commission was also accused of being biased against the persecution of Christians and against Muslims. A former policy analyst, Safiya Ghori-Ahmad, had filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about this . She claimed that she was fired because she was a Muslim and a member of an advocacy group, the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Current commissioners and a few other religious freedom advocates deny claims of being biased. The commission was accused of an internal power struggle and that it was ineffective.

Jemera Rone of Human Rights Watch said of the report, “I think the legislative history of this ordinance will likely show that there has been a great deal of interest in protecting the rights of Christians ... So I think the burden is probably on the US government is to show that this law is not about campaigning or proselytizing in the name of the Christian religion ”.

According to the National Council of Churches, "politics will advance the cause of Christians to the exclusion of persecuted believers of other religions".

In an investigation into the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 in 2009, the Institute for Global Engagement found that United States' international policy on religious freedom was problematic "because it focused more on rhetorical defamation of persecutors and the release of religious prisoners rather than on the support of the political and cultural institutions that are necessary for religious freedom ”and was therefore ineffective. It also found that the United States' international freedom of religion policy was often perceived as an attack on religions, cultural imperialism, or a front for American missionaries. The report recommended that more attention should be paid to religious freedom in US diplomacy and foreign policy in general, and that USCIRF should pay more attention to integrating religious freedom issues into foreign policy.

In 2005, then Commissioner Richard Land wrote the book Imagine! A God Blessed America: What It Would Look Like and How It Could Happen (Picture! A God Blessed America: What It Would Look Like and How It Could Happen ). In the book he wrote that the Hindu culture / tradition was "superstitious" and "cruel".

See also

Web links

Commons : United States Commission on International Religious Freedom  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shea, Nina , Right Web, October 18, 2013, accessed July 10, 2017
  2. ↑ a b c d Arvind Kumar, The Religious Crusades of the CIA , Indiafacts, truth be told, January 21, 2015, accessed July 10, 2017
  3. ↑ Public Law 105-292 - International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 , US Government Publishing Office, October 27, 1998, accessed July 10, 2017
  4. ^ A b International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 text , US Government Publishing Office, October 27, 1998, accessed July 10, 2017
  5. ↑ Authorizing Legislation & Amendments , United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, 17. August 1999, accessed July 10, 2017
  6. ↑ Authorizing Legislation & Amendments , United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, June 1, 2010, accessed July 10, 2017
  7. ↑ Michelle Bauman, US religious freedom commission reauthorized at last minute , Catholic News Agency, December 17, 2011, accessed July 10, 2017
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Laurie Cozad, The United States' Imposition of Religious Freedom: The International Religious Freedom Act and India , India Review, Vol. 4, Issue 1: pp. 59-83, November 25, 2006, accessed on July 10, 2017
  9. ↑ Commissioners , United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, accessed July 10, 2017
  10. ↑ Dr. Robert P. George, Chairman ( Memento December 16, 2014 on the Internet Archive ), United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, December 16, 2014, accessed July 10, 2017
  11. ↑ Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, Vice Chair ( October 26, 2015 memento in the Internet Archive ), United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, accessed July 10, 2017
  12. ↑ Dr. James J. Zogby, Commissioner ( October 14, 2014 memento on the Internet Archive ), United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, accessed July 10, 2017
  13. ↑ Professor Mary Ann Glendon, Commissioner ( Memento of 23 December 2014 Internet Archive ), United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, accessed on July 10, 2017
  14. ↑ Eric P. Schwartz, Vice Chair ( Memento December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, accessed July 10, 2017
  15. ↑ Dr. Daniel I. Mark, Commissioner ( Memento of 16 December 2014 Internet Archive ), United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, accessed on July 10, 2017
  16. ↑ Rev. Thomas J. Reese, SJ ( July 1, 2014 memento on the Internet Archive ), United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, accessed July 10, 2017
  17. ^ Hannah Rosenthal, Commissioner ( Memento October 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, accessed July 10, 2017
  18. ↑ Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, Commissioner ( December 16, 2014 memento on the Internet Archive ), United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, accessed July 10, 2017
  19. ↑ US Senate approves rabbi as freedom of faith envoy , The Times of Israel, December 15, 2014, accessed July 10, 2017
  20. ^ Former Commissioners , United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, 1999 to 2017, accessed July 10, 2017
  21. ↑ Sandeep B., Surpassing Goebbels ( Memento August 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), The Pioneer, August 19, 2009, accessed July 10, 2017
  22. ↑ Analysis of the USCIRF India Chapter report, 2014 , indiafacts, truth be told, accessed July 10, 2017
  23. ↑ Orissa: Christian leaders disagree with US panel's report , rediff News, August 14, 2009, Babu Thomas, Orissa Christians reject USCIRF report, defends 'secular' India , Ministries, accessed July 10, 2017
  24. ↑ Omayma Abdel-Latif, US commission faces closed doors ( Memento of November 27, 2003 in the Internet Archive ), Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, 22. – 28. March 2001, issue 526, accessed July 10, 2017
  25. ↑ Kees Hulsman, Egypt: Religious Freedom Delegation Gets Cold Shoulder , Christianity Today, May 21, 2001, accessed July 10, 2017
  26. ↑ Robert A. Seiple, Speaking Out: The USCIRF Is Only Cursing the Darkness , Christianity Today, October 1, 2002, accessed July 10, 2017
  27. ↑ Felice Gaer, USCIRF's Concern Is To Help All Religious Freedom Victims , Christianity Today, November 1, 2002, accessed July 10, 2017
  28. ↑ Philip Smith, Center for Public Policy Analysis , Washington, DC, December 10, 2004, accessed July 10, 2017
  29. ↑ Michelle Boorstein, Agency that monitors religious freedom abroad accused of bias , The Washington Post, February 17, 2010, accessed July 10, 2017
  30. ↑ Rosalind IJ Hackett; Mark Silk; Dennis Hoover, Religious Persecution as a US Policy Issue (PDF) ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, Trinity College, Harford, 2000, accessed July 10, 2017
  31. ↑ Allen D. Hertzke; Daniel Philpott, Defending the Faiths , The National Interest, 2000, accessed July 10, 2017
  32. ↑ Dr. Thomas F. Farr, Dennis R. Hoover, The Future of US International Religious Freedom Policy (Special Report) ( December 14, 2009 memento in the Internet Archive ), The Institute for Global Engagement, March 18, 2009, accessed July 10 2017