United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
Encyclopedia
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 was passed to promote religious freedom as a foreign policy of the United States, and to advocate on the behalf of the individuals viewed as persecuted in foreign countries on the account of religion...

. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. USCIRF's principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

, the Secretary of State, and the Congress. It describes itself as "[g]rounded in and informed by the American experience". It is rooted in the U.S. Evangelical movement and its original intention was to protect Christians around the world. Such organisations as Christian Solidarity International
Christian Solidarity International
Christian Solidarity International is a Christian human rights NGO that is "committed to defending religious liberty, helping victims of religious repression, victimized children, and victims of disaster."...

, International Christian Concern
International Christian Concern
International Christian Concern is a non-denominational, non-governmental, Christian watchdog group, located in Washington, DC, whose concern is the human rights of Christians...

, Open Doors
Open Doors
Open Doors is a non-denominational mission supporting persecuted Christians in more than 50 countries where Christianity is socially or legally discouraged or oppressed...

 and the
Cardinal Kung Foundation
Cardinal Kung Foundation
The Cardinal Kung Foundation is a not-for-profit Roman Catholic organization based in Stamford, Connecticut. Founded in 1994 by Joseph Kung, nephew of the late Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei, the foundation monitors the treatment of Catholics in China and that portion of the Catholic Church in...

 as well as the lawyer Michael Horowitz
Michael Horowitz
*For the British poet, see Michael Horovitz.*For the U.S. electrical engineer see Michael J. HorowitzMichael Horowitz is an American author and archivist in San Francisco....

 were influences for the foundation of the International Religious Freedom Act.

It is funded entirely by the federal government on an annual basis and its staff members are government employees.

As of June 2010, the Commissioners are:

1) Leonard Leo
Leonard Leo
Leonard Leo is director of the Lawyers Division and executive vice president of the Federalist Society, and head of "Catholic Outreach" at the Republican National Committee. He also served as an advisor to President George W. Bush on judicial nominees...

 (chair),Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society.

2) Elizabeth H. Prodromou (vice chair),Associate Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs and Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University.

3) Dr. Don Argue, Chancellor, Northwest University.

4) Talal Eid, Founder and Director of Religious Affairs, Islamic Institute of Boston.

5) Felice D. Gaer
Felice D. Gaer
Felice D. Gaer is an American expert on human rights and a longstanding member and the former chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom....

, Director, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights; The American Jewish Committee.

6) Richard Land
Richard Land
Dr. Richard D. Land, aka Chief Red Bull, is the president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission , the moral and ethics concern entity of the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States, a post he has held since 1988...

,President, Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. In 1999, An Anti-Hindu booklet was produced by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. More-over, the Hindu American Foundation
Hindu American Foundation
The Hindu American Foundation is an American Hindu human rights group advocating on behalf of the Hindu community in the United States. Dr...

's 2007 report concluded that the International Mission Board's website spreads online Hatred, Extremism and Bigotry against Hindus.

7) Nina Shea
Nina Shea
Nina Shea is an international human-rights lawyer, and international religious freedom advocate.-Early life:A native of Pennsylvania, Shea graduated cum laude from Smith College, and graduated from the Washington College of Law of American University...

, Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...

. Shea's work has primarily focused on religion, in particular on the persecution of Christians, a theme she has repeatedly used to push for interventionist U.S. policies dating back to the Contra wars in Nicaragua.

8) William Shaw, Immediate Past President of the National Baptist Convention, USA. Inc. and Pastor of White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia

The State Department's Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom serves as an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Commission. Past Commissioners include Preeta D. Bansal
Preeta D. Bansal
Preeta D. Bansal is an American lawyer who served as the General Counsel to the federal Office of Management and Budget from 2009 until announcing her departure for an undisclosed think tank in June 2011...

, John Hanford
John Hanford
John Van Hanford III was United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom from 2002 to 2009. As ambassador, Hanford led the Office of International Religious Freedom at the United States Department of State....

, Khaled Abou El Fadl, Charles J. Chaput
Charles J. Chaput
Charles Joseph Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He is the ninth and current Archbishop of Philadelphia, serving since his installation on September 8, 2011. He previously served as Archbishop of Denver and Bishop of Rapid City .Chaput is a professed Capuchin and...

, Michael K. Young, Firuz Kazemzadeh
Firuz Kazemzadeh
Firuz Kazemzadeh is a professor emeritus of history at Yale University.Firuz Kazemzadeh was born in Moscow, where his father served in the embassy of Iran...

, Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli
Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli
Dr. Prof. Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli is a Pakistani-American political scientist and an Ambassador. In 2008, she was the senior advisor for women's empowerment to the United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and was Senior director for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations at the...

, John R. Bolton
John R. Bolton
John Robert Bolton is an American lawyer and diplomat who has served in several Republican presidential administrations. He served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 2005 until December 2006 on a recess appointment...

 and Elliot Abrams.

The legislation authorizing the USCIRF currently states that the Commission will terminate on September 30, 2011.

History

In the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 was passed to promote religious freedom as a foreign policy of the United States, and to advocate on the behalf of the individuals viewed as persecuted in foreign countries on the account of religion...

, Congress created three mechanisms in order to advance universal human rights:
  • An Office of International Religious Freedom in the United States Department of State
    United States Department of State
    The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

    , headed by an Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom
  • A mandate that the State Department prepare Annual Reports on International Religious Freedom
  • A requirement to name the most egregious religious freedom violators as Countries of Particular Concern
    Country of Particular Concern
    Country of Particular Concern is a designation by the United States Secretary of State of a nation guilty of particularly severe violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and its amendment of 1999...

     (CPCs) and to take policy actions in response to all violations of religious freedom as a specific element of U.S. foreign policy programs, cultural exchanges, and international broadcasting.

Duties and Responsibilities

USCIRF researches and monitors international religious freedom issues. The Commission is authorized to travel on fact-finding missions to other countries; Consult and meet various entities like officials of foreign governments, religious groups, human rights group, policy experts etc; Hold public hearings, and issue reports as well other public statements; Participate in U.S. delegations to international meetings and conferences as well as train Foreign Service Officer
Foreign Service Officer
A Foreign Service Officer is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. As diplomats, Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. FSOs spend most of their careers overseas as members of U.S. embassies, consulates, and other diplomatic...

s and other U.S. officials.

The Commission on International Religious Freedom issues an annual report every May 1. The Annual Report describes conditions for freedom of religious or belief in countries of concern to the Commission and provides policy recommendations to ensure that the promotion of freedom of religious belief becomes a more integral part of U.S. foreign policy. The report contains chapters on countries the Commission had recommended for designation as Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs) for severe violations of religious freedom; countries the Commission has placed on a Watch List for violations of religious freedom that do not meet the CPC threshold but require attention; and other countries USCIRF is monitoring closely. The Annual Report also includes chapters on U.S. policy on expedited removal and multilateral organizations.

Commissioners

The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 provides for the Commission to be composed of ten members:
  • Three appointed by the President
  • Three appointed by the President pro tempore of the Senate
    President pro tempore of the United States Senate
    The President pro tempore is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate. The United States Constitution states that the Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate and the highest-ranking official of the Senate despite not being a member of the body...

    , of which two of the members shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the leader in the Senate
    Party leaders of the United States Senate
    The Senate Majority and Minority Leaders are two United States Senators who are elected by the party conferences that hold the majority and the minority respectively. These leaders serve as the chief Senate spokespeople for their parties and manage and schedule the legislative and executive...

     of the political party that is not the political party of the President, and of which one of the members shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the leader in the Senate of the other political party
  • Three appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives
    Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
    The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...

    , of which two of the members shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the leader in the House
    Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives
    Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives are elected by their respective parties in a closed-door caucus by secret ballot and are also known as floor leaders. The U.S. House of Representatives does not officially use the term "Minority Leader", although the media frequently does...

     of the political party that is not the political party of the President, and of which one of the members shall be appointed upon the recommendation of the leader in the House of the other political party.
  • The Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, as non-voting ex-officio member


IRFA provides that "Members of the Commission shall be selected among distinguished individuals noted for their knowledge and experience in fields relevant to the issue of international religious freedom, including foreign affairs, direct experience abroad, human rights, and international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

." Commissioners are not paid for their work on the Commission (Stanke, 48). Appointments last for two years, and Commissioners are eligible for reappointment.

The effect of the various appointing authorities is for the Commission to be bipartisan in character. The position of the Chair rotates from year to year from an appointee of one party to the appointee of the other.

Many of the commissioners have been leaders of various abrahamic religious groups, including Imams, Bishops, Archbishops and Rabbis. No commissioner have been leader of a non-abrahamic religious group.

Criticism and controversy

Commissioners have occasionally abstained or dissented from the USCIRF's classifications of various countries.

Dissent List:

Saudi Arabia: Bolton and Al-Marayati (2001)

Uzbekistan: Sadat and Tahir-Kheli (2003)

Nigeria: Cromartie (2009)

Iraq: Cromartie, Eid, and Land (2009); Cromartie, Eid, and Land (2010)

Turkey: Eid (2010)

India: Young and Shea (2001); Gaer and Young (2003); Bansal, Chaput, Gaer, and Young (2004); Gaer (2009); Gaer (2010); Gaer and Shaw (2011)

India

USCIRF has placed India on CPC and watch list in year 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010 primarily because of communal riots between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat & Mumbai, Kandha-Tribals and Panna-Christians in Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

, and Anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. However, USCIRF report's description of events are a major source of controversy and criticism.

For instance, Anti-Sikh riot, which is the largest of all communal riots described by USCIRF, happened in 1984. USCIRF 2001 report blames "Sangh Parivar
Sangh Parivar
The Sangh Parivar refers to the family of organisations of Hindu nationalists which have been started by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or are inspired by its ideas. The Sangh Parivar represents the Hindu nationalist movement. It includes the RSS and several dozen smaller...

 propaganda" (sic
Sic
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...

) for violence against Sikhs. On the other hand, Late President of India
President of India
The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. President of India is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian Democracy - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary...

 Giani Zail Singh, who was a Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...

 and leader of rival Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 party, praised Sangh Parivar
Sangh Parivar
The Sangh Parivar refers to the family of organisations of Hindu nationalists which have been started by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or are inspired by its ideas. The Sangh Parivar represents the Hindu nationalist movement. It includes the RSS and several dozen smaller...

 for saving hundreds of Sikh lives, and for playing a crucial role in restoring peace during 1984 riots. Sangh Parivar
Sangh Parivar
The Sangh Parivar refers to the family of organisations of Hindu nationalists which have been started by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or are inspired by its ideas. The Sangh Parivar represents the Hindu nationalist movement. It includes the RSS and several dozen smaller...

’s role was positively noted in Judicial Inquiry report submitted by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Nanavati.

USICRF report drew criticism from the Indian press. The Pioneer, in an editorial termed it as “fiction", "biased”, and “Surpassing Goebbels
Big Lie
The Big Lie is a propaganda technique. The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously." Hitler asserted the technique was...

”. It criticized USCIRF for projecting the massacre of 58 Hindu passengers
Godhra Train Burning
The Godhra train burning was an incident in which a sleeper coach on a passenger train was set on fire in 2002 by Muslims in Godhra, Gujarat, India in a conspiracy...

 as an accident. It also accused USCIRF of indirectly justifying murder of Swami Lakshamananda Saraswati, a Hindu cleric.

An India Currents article termed USCIRF as “severely biased”, “an extension of a fringe evangelistic crowd”, “interested only in the Christian right
Christian right
Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...

” and “maintaining silence on non-Christian right”.

Christian leaders in Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

 defended India: Archbishop Raphael Cheenath stated that India remained of a secular character, the president of the Orissa Minority Forum that, despite a small hate campaign against minorities, the majority of society had been "cordial and supportive", and the Orissa Secular Front that, despite the 2002 and 2008 riots, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 had a strong secular foundation.

A Hindu Advocacy group based in the USA, the Hindu American Foundation
Hindu American Foundation
The Hindu American Foundation is an American Hindu human rights group advocating on behalf of the Hindu community in the United States. Dr...

, characterized the report as biased, anti-Hindu
Anti-Hindu
Anti-Hindu prejudice is a negative perception or religious intolerance against the practice and practitioners of Hinduism. Anti-Hindu sentiments have been expressed by Muslims in Pakistan, Bangladesh, leading to significant persecution of Hindus in those regions, such as the 1971 Bangladesh...

, motivated by the political wishes, and religious bigotries of the commission's members rather than a genuine desire for monitoring the state of religious freedom in the world. HAF's press release criticized USCIRF report for telling half truths, omitting attacks on Hindus. More-over, it pointed out that India is a country whose last president was Muslim
Abdul Kalam
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam usually referred to as A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, is a renowned aerospace engineer, professor , and first Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram , who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007...

, whose leader of the largest political party is Christian
Sonia Gandhi
Sonia Gandhi is an Italian-born Indian politician and the President of the Indian National Congress, one of the major political parties of India. She is the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi...

, and whose Prime Minister is Sikh
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...

. On March 10, 2011, HAF delivered testimony to the USCIRF detailing their criticisms of the USCIRF's position regarding India.

Egypt

Prior to the 2001 visit of the USCIRF to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, some Coptic
Coptic Christianity
The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the official name for the largest Christian church in Egypt and the Middle East. The Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches, which has been a distinct church body since the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, when it took a different...

 leaders in Egypt protested, viewing the visit as a form of American imperialism. For example, Mounir Azmi, a member of the Coptic Community Council, said that despite problems for Copts, the visit was a "vile campaign against Egypt" and would be unhelpful. Another critic called the visit "foreign intervention in our internal affairs". In the event, the USCIRF was able to meet the Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III and Mohammed Sayed Tantawi of Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.It is...

, but others refused to meet the delegation. Hisham Kassem, chairman of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights , founded in April 1985 and with its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, is a non-profit NGO and one of the longest-standing bodies for the defense of human rights in Egypt. It investigates, monitors, and reports on human rights violations...

, felt that insisting on the rights of Christians in Egypt might antagonize Muslims and thus be counterproductive.

Cursing the darkness

First-ever U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Robert Seiple, criticized the USCIRF’s emphasis on the punishment of religious persecution over the promotion of religious freedom. In his view, the USCIRF was "only cursing the darkness". As an example, he highlights the Commission’s decision to designate Laos a Country of Particular Concern in 2002 despite release of religious prisoners. Of the USCIRF he further stated “...that which was conceived in error and delivered in chaos has now been consigned to irrelevancy. Unless the Commission finds some candles soon, Congress ought to turn out the lights."

The Commission responded that despite the releases, Laos still had systemic impediments to religious freedom, such as laws allowing religious activities only with the consent of government officials, and laws allowing the government to determine whether a religious community is in accord with its own teaching.

Christian bias and other issues

Despite appointing Muslim commissioners, The Commission has also been accused of being biased towards focusing on the persecution of Christians, and of being anti-Muslim. A former policy analyst, Safiya Ghori-Ahmad, has filed a complaint with the EEOC
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is an independent federal law enforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence,...

, alleging that she was fired because she was a Muslim and a member of an advocacy group, the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Current commissioners and some other religious-freedom advocates deny the claims of bias. The commission has also been accused of in-fighting and ineffectiveness.

Jemera Rone
Jemera Rone
Jemera Rone is the Human Rights Watch East Africa Coordinator. She is an outspoken critic of the development of the oil infrastructure in East Africa, which she believes often comes at the expense of the local population, rather than to their benefit...

 of Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

 said about the report:
I think the legislative history of this Act will probably reflect that
there was a great deal of interest in protecting the rights of
Christians …. So I think that the burden is probably on the US
government to show that in this Act they’re not engaging in crusading
or proselytization on behalf of the Christian religion.


According to the National Council of Churches
National Council of Churches
The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA is an ecumenical partnership of 37 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member denominations, churches, conventions, and archdioceses include Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African American, Evangelical, and historic peace...

,
the policy will promote the cause
of Christians to the exclusion of persecuted believers of other religions.


In a 2009 study of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 was passed to promote religious freedom as a foreign policy of the United States, and to advocate on the behalf of the individuals viewed as persecuted in foreign countries on the account of religion...

, the Institite of Global Engagement stated that the United States' international religious freedom policy was problematic in that it "has focused more on rhetorical denunciations of persecutors and releasing religious prisoners than on facilitating the political and cultural institutions necessary to religious freedom", and had therefore been ineffective. It further stated that U.S. IRF policy was often perceived as an attack on religion, cultural imperialism, or a front for American missionaries. The report recommended that there be more attention to religious freedom in U. S. diplomacy and foreign policy in general, and that the USCIRF devote more attention to monitoring the integration of religious freedom issues into foreign policy.
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