Group Urges Changes On 10th Anniversary of International Religious Freedom Act

Today is the 10th anniversary of the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act. In a press release distributed by e-mail, the Institute on Religion and Public Policy uses the occasion to criticize the weakness of the current structures under IRFA and to suggest a number of steps the U.S. should take to strengthen international religious freedom protections. It urges that the State Department's annual religious freedom report place countries in tiers according to how well they protect religious freedom. More dramatically, it recommends a number of structural changes that should be recommended to the next Congress:

· Create ongoing program funding within the Office of International Religious Freedom to support deserving local organizations that monitor religious freedom abuses in their countries.

· Strengthen the role of the Office of International Religious Freedom in the State Department by having it report directly to the Secretary as was congressional intent, rather than remaining under the rubric of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

· Ensure the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom enjoys the full diplomatic and negotiating privileges of his rank, and has a more central role in shaping U.S. foreign policy, as called for in the act.

· Follow the recommendations of the act by naming a director-level individual in the National Security Council to oversee strategic religious liberty issues within the White House.

· Allow the federal U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to dissolve as scheduled in 2011, and hold in the meantime a Congressional oversight hearing to assess its performance.

UPDATE: To mark the anniversary, Pew Forum carries an interview with Allen Hertzke, author of a 2004 book on the birth and development of the international religious freedom movement, Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights.