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. 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, the Secretary of State, and the Congress. It describes itself as "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, International Christian Concern, Open Doors and the Cardinal Kung Foundation as well as the lawyer Michael Horowitz 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 (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, Director, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights; The American Jewish Committee.
6) Richard Land,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's 2007 report concluded that the International Mission Board's website spreads online Hatred, Extremism and Bigotry against Hindus.
7) Nina Shea, Center for Religious Freedom, Hudson Institute. 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, John Hanford, Khaled Abou El Fadl, Charles J. Chaput, Michael K. Young, Firuz Kazemzadeh, Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli, John R. Bolton and Elliot Abrams.
The legislation authorizing the USCIRF had stated that the Commission would terminate on September 30, 2011, unless it was reauthorized or given a temporary extension. It was given several extensions by the Congress, but would have expired at 5:00 pm on Friday, December 16, 2011 had it not been reauthorized for a seven-year term (until 2018), on the morning of the 16th. This happened after a new reauthorization bill passed both Houses containing two amendments were made to it that Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL (the Senate Majority Whip) had wanted as a condition of releasing a hold he had secretly placed on the former version of the bill; he released it December 13, after the revisions were made. They stipulate that there will be a two-year limit on terms for commissioners, and that they will be under the same travel restrictions as employees of the Department of State.
Read more about United States Commission On International Religious Freedom: History, Duties and Responsibilities, Commissioners, Criticism and Controversy
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, commission, religious and/or freedom:
“The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomac ... and that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“... it is probable that in a fit of generosity the men of the United States would have enfranchised its women en masse; and the government now staggering under the ballots of ignorant, irresponsible men, must have gone down under the additional burden of the votes which would have been thrown upon it, by millions of ignorant, irresponsible women.”
—Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)
“Courage, then, for the end draws near! A few more years of persistent, faithful work and the women of the United States will be recognized as the legal equals of men.”
—Mary A. Livermore (1821–1905)
“A sense of humour keen enough to show a man his own absurdities as well as those of other people will keep a man from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“American thinking, when it concerns itself with beautiful letters as when it concerns itself with religious dogma or political theory, is extraordinarily timid and superficial ... [I]t evades the genuinely serious problems of art and life as if they were stringently taboo ... [T]he outward virtues it undoubtedly shows are always the virtues, not of profundity, not of courage, not of originality, but merely those of an emasculated and often very trashy dilettantism.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“I have given the best of myself and the best work of my life to help obtain political freedom for women, knowing that upon this rests the hope not only of the freedom of men but of the onward civilization of the world.”
—Mary S. Anthony (1827–1907)