Secretary of State Pompeo Declares Chinese Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide Against Uyghurs

Yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the State Department has concluded that since March 2017 China has committed crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. These crimes remain ongoing.  The State Department has also concluded that China has-- and continues to-- commit genocide against the Muslim Uyghurs and other minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Western China. 

New Law Elevates Anti-Semitism Monitor To Rank of Ambassador

Yesterday President Trump signed HR 221, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act (full text). The new law elevates the Special Envoy to the rank and status of ambassador.

State Department Allows "Israel" To Be Listed As Birthplace On Passports of Americans Born In Jerusalem

Last Wednesday, Politco reported:

The Trump administration is expected to soon announce that the U.S. passports of Americans born in Jerusalem can now mention Israel as the country of birth.

The decision, confirmed by a U.S. official Wednesday, is the latest by President Donald Trump that favors Israel in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It could be revealed as early as Thursday, just days before next week’s U.S. presidential election, and it could help Trump as he seeks to turn out evangelical Christians and other voters in his base who strongly support Israel.

Public confirmation of this policy change appears to have been made through a Tweet by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reading:

Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's policy, I am happy to announce U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem can now elect to list their place of birth as either "Jerusalem" or "Israel" on their passports. We remain committed to lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

As reported by Al Jazeera, yesterday US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman ceremonially presented the first such passport to Menachem Zivotofsky.

An attempt by Congress to change the passport policy was invalidated by the Supreme Court in 2015 on the grounds that it infringed the President's exclusive power to recognize foreign governments. (See prior posting.)

US Signs Multinational Women's Health Declaration That Rejects Abortion

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that on Oct. 22, the United States co-sponsored a virtual signing ceremony for the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women's Health and Strengthening the Family. The Declaration (full text) which calls for universal health care and supporting the role of the family was signed by 32 countries. It reads in part:

[We] Emphasize that “in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning” and that “any measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process”;

... Reaffirm that “the child… needs special safeguards and care… before as well as after birth”....

The signatories agreed to work together to:

Improve and secure access to health and development gains for women, including sexual and reproductive health, which must always promote optimal health, the highest attainable standard of health, without including abortion;

Reaffirm that there is no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of States to finance or facilitate abortion, consistent with the long-standing international consensus that each nation has the sovereign right to implement programs and activities consistent with their laws and policies...

The primary co-sponsors of the Declaration are Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Uganda and the United States. The signatories are mostly nations from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. 

[Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

Secretary Pompeo Speaks At Vatican Conference On Defending Religious Freedom

Earlier this week (Sept. 30), Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke at the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican at the "Holy See Symposium on Advancing and Defending Religious Freedom Through Diplomacy." His speech (full text and video) was titled Moral Witness and Religious Freedom. He said in part:

It was important for me to attend this year, because the mission of defending human dignity – and religious freedom in particular – remains at the core of American foreign policy.

That’s because it’s at the heart of the American experiment.  Our founders regarded religious freedom as an absolutely essential right of mankind and central to our founding....

But sadly, authoritarian regimes, terrorists, and even secularists, free societies are – in their different ways – trampling religious freedom all around the world.

Vast swathes of humanity live in countries where religious freedom is restricted, from places like Iran, to Nigeria, and to Cuba, and beyond....

Nowhere, however – nowhere is religious freedom under assault more than it is inside of China today.  That’s because, as with all communist regimes, the Chinese Communist Party deems itself the ultimate moral authority.

American On Trial For Blasphemy In Pakistan Is Assassinated In Courtroom

A press statement from the State Department yesterday reports on the killing of an American citizen, Tahir Naseem, inside a court room in Pakistan where he was on trial for blasphemy:

Mr. Naseem had been lured to Pakistan from his home in Illinois by individuals who then used Pakistan’s blasphemy laws to entrap him.  The U.S. Government has been providing consular assistance to Mr. Naseem and his family since his detention in 2018 and has called the attention of senior Pakistani officials to his case to prevent the type of shameful tragedy that eventually occurred.

The State Department called for the reform of Pakistan's blasphemy laws.  Radio Free Europe adds details:

It was not clear how the suspect, identified as Khalid Khan, managed to gain access to the courtroom.

He told police the prophet Muhammad had ordered him to kill Nasim because he had belonged to the Ahmadi faith....

According to BBC News:

Mr Naseem was first accused of blasphemy by Awais Malik, a madrassa student from Peshawar. Mr Naseem had struck up an online conversation with him whilst living in the United States.

Mr Malik told the BBC he had then met Mr Naseem in a shopping mall in Peshawar to discuss his views on religion, after which he filed a case against him with the police....

Mr Naseem was born into the persecuted Ahmadi sect, according to a spokesman for the community. But he added that he had left the sect and claimed to be a prophet himself.

The community leader suggested Mr Naseem had been mentally ill - he had uploaded videos to YouTube claiming to be a messiah.

State Department Releases Draft Report Of Commission on Inalienable Rights

On July 16, the U.S. State Department released the 60-page Draft Report of the Commission on Inalienable Rights. The Report was released in Philadelphia by Commission Chair Mary Ann Glendon and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Full text and video of their remarks.) The wide-ranging report emphasizes the religious traditions of the country's founders as well as the primacy of religious liberty.  Here are a few excerpts:

Foremost among the unalienable rights that government is established to secure, from the founders’ point of view, are property rights and religious liberty. A political society that destroys the possibility of either loses its legitimacy....

Some mistakenly suppose that so generous a conception of liberty must rest on skepticism about salvation and justice. Why give people freedom to choose if God’s will and the imperatives of justice are knowable? In fact, a certain skepticism is involved, but it is directed not at faith and justice but at the capacity of government officials to rule authoritatively on the deepest and greatest questions. The Madisonian view of religious liberty ... proceeds from a theistic premise about the sources of human dignity even as it denies the state the power to dictate final answers about ultimate matters....

[E]ven a quick, preliminary reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reveals many parallels to the fundamental constitutional and political principles of the United States.... 

The Universal Declaration’s weaving of civil and political rights together with economic, social, and cultural rights into an integrated whole poses a certain challenge for the United States. Unlike the Universal Declaration and unlike the majority of constitutions of the world that have been adopted since the early- to mid- 20th century, the U.S. Constitution does not generally recognize, let alone entrench, economic and social rights. Throughout the Cold War, the United States emphasized its commitment to civil and political rights almost exclusively, while rejecting the notion, championed by the Soviet Union, of the preeminence of economic and social rights. Since the end of the Cold War, a consistent aspect of U.S. human rights policy, across every presidential administration regardless of political party, has been U.S. reluctance to recognize economic and social rights as an integral part of the canon of international human rights....

The Draft Report is open for public comment until July 30. Reaction to the Draft Report by some has been very negative.

State Department Releases 2019 International Religious Freedom Report

Yesterday, the U.S. State Department released its 2019 Report on International Religious Freedom. The State Department said in part:

The annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom – the International Religious Freedom Report – describes the status of religious freedom in every country. The report covers government policies violating religious belief and practices of groups, religious denominations and individuals, and U.S. policies to promote religious freedom around the world. The U.S. Department of State submits the reports in accordance with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

The State Department presents the Report in an online format that allows readers to select the countries whose activities they wish to see. Secretary of State Pompeo and Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback spoke with the press as they released the report. (Full text of remarks and press conference).

10th Circuit Hears Oral Arguments On Passport Gender Markers

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit yesterday heard oral arguments (audio of full arguments) in Zzyym v. Pompeo. In the case, a Colorado federal district court held that the State Department's policy on passport gender designations is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. (Full text of district court's 2018 opinion). The Department requires selection of "M" or "F" as gender on passport applications, and refused to allow plaintiff who is an intersex individual to select "X" as a gender marker. Lambda Legal's case page has extensive additional information and links to pleadings, briefs and decisions in the case.

State Department Designates Religious Freedom Violators

In a Dec. 20 press release, the U.S. State Department announced it designations for this year of countries which are the worst violators of religious freedom:

On December 18, 2019, the Department of State re-designated Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom.”  The Department renewed the placement of Comoros, Russia, and Uzbekistan on a Special Watch List (SWL) for governments that have engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom,” and added Cuba, Nicaragua, Nigeria, and Sudan to this list.  Sudan was moved to the SWL due to significant steps taken by the civilian-led transitional government to address the previous regime’s “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”  Finally, we designated al-Nusra Front, al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qa’ida, al-Shabab, Boko Haram, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Khorasan, and the Taliban as Entities of Particular Concern.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a press release welcoming the action and reiterating its recommendations.

Secy. Pompeo Speaks To Christian Conference

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke on Friday to the American Association of Christian Counselors meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.The full text of his remarks titled "Being a Christian Leader" are featured on the State Department's website, along with a video of his remarks. Pompeo said in part:

... I’m especially telling the truth about the dire condition of religious freedom around the world. America has a proud history of religious freedom, and we want jealously to guard it here.  But around the world, more than 80% of mankind lives in areas where religious freedom is suppressed or denied in its entirety.

The Chinese Communist Party ... is detaining and abusing more than one million Uighur Muslims in internment camps in the Xinjiang. ...

So Christian pastors today are being unlawfully arrested, beaten, detained inside the Islamic Republic of Iran.  We need to speak about this.

Christian areas in northern Iraq that I’ve had the privilege to visit have been ravaged by ISIS, part of a greater trend of Christian persecution all across the Middle East.

And so the truth – for the past two years we’ve spoken the truth.  We’ve hosted ministerials....  We’ve told the world about these shortfalls and the success of nations when individuals are given their basic human dignity to practice their conscience, their faith, or to choose no faith if they so choose all around the world.

Pompeo Speaks At Vatican Symposium On Faith-Based Organizations

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke yesterday (full text and video of remarks) in the Vatican at a symposium titled Pathways to Achieving Human Dignity: Partnering with Faith-Based Organizations. The event was co-sponsored by the Holy See’s Secretariat of State and the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See. (Background on event). In his remarks, Secretary Pompeo particularly highlighted the persecution of Uighurs in China, but called out a number of other nations as well, saying in part:

We must recognize the roots of religious repression.  Authoritarian regimes and autocrats will never accept a power higher than their own.  And that causes all sorts of assaults on human dignity.

We must exercise our moral voice to confront them.

Gay Couple Sue Over Citizenship of Child Born Through Surrogacy Abroad

A same-sex married couple has filed suit in a Georgia federal district court challenging the State Department's refusal to recognize their daughter as a U.S. citizen.  The complaint (full text) in Mize v. Pompeo, (MD GA, filed 7/23/2019), alleges that the due process and equal protection rights of James Mize and Jonathan Gregg were violated when the U.S. Embassy in Britain refused to issue a Consular Report of Birth Abroad and passport to their daughter who was born through assisted reproductive technology in Britain. It also contends that the State Department has misinterpreted the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The couple used the sperm of Mr. Gregg, an anonymous egg donor, and a surrogate who lives in Britain. Both fathers are U.S. citizens.  Mr. Gregg is a U.S. citizen by reason of birth in Britain to a U.S. citizen. He has lived in the U.S. less than five years. Mize and Gregg are listed as the only parents on the child's birth certificate.

Under Sec. 301 of the INA, a person born outside the United States to two married U.S. citizens is a U.S. citizen if at least one of the parents has resided in the U.S. at any time. However the State Department applies this provision only if the child has a biological relationship with both married parents. Otherwise it applies Sections 309 and 301(g) of the INA that govern when a child born out of wedlock is a citizen. In that case, the father must have lived in the U.S. for 5 years for the child to be a citizen.

The complaint alleges:

On information and belief, State Department officials are highly unlikely to ask different-sex parents who are identified as legal parents (e.g., on a child’s birth certificate) if their child is, in fact, biologically related to both legal parents. In contrast, same-sex parents will always trigger an investigation, and consular officials routinely ask same-sex parents for specific evidence of a biological tie and/or about the use of assisted reproductive technology.

CNN reports on the lawsuit.

State Department Hosts Second Ministerial To Advance Religious Freedom

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is hosting the second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. The 3-day event ends today.  The State Department's website outlines each day's agenda.  The website also has videos of all the speeches and workshops presented during the three days. Secretary Pompeo offered opening remarks at the event. The State Department's website describes the conference:

The Ministerial will reaffirm international commitments to promote religious freedom for all and focus on concrete outcomes that produce durable, positive change. A broad range of stakeholders will convene to discuss challenges, identify concrete ways to combat religious persecution and discrimination, and ensure greater respect for freedom of religion or belief.

The State Department has also chosen 5 recipients of the 2019 International Religious Freedom Awards.

U.S. Sanctions Top Burmese Military Leaders For Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya

Yesterday U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that four top Burmese military leaders and their immediate families will be barred from entry into the United States "for gross human rights violations, including in extrajudicial killings in northern Rakhine State, Burma, during the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya." This made the United States the first government to publicly take action against the most senior leadership of the Burmese (Myanmar) military. The announcement was followed by an official briefing on the action by State Department officials. AlJazeera reports on the State Department's action.

Pompeo Announces New Commission on Inalienable Rights

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced today that he has created a Commission on Inalienable Rights which, he says, will engage in "one of the most profound reexaminations of the unalienable rights in the world since the 1948 Universal Declaration." He intends that the Commission engage in "an informed review of the role of human rights in American foreign policy."

His statement sets out the reasons for creation of the new Commission:

Today the language of human rights has become the common vernacular for discussions of human freedom and dignity all around the world, and these are truly great achievements.

But we should never lose sight of the warnings of Vaclav Havel, a hero of the late-20th-century human rights movement, that words like “rights” can be used for good or evil; “they can be rays of light in a realm of darkness … [but] they can also be lethal arrows.” ...

It’s a sad commentary on our times that more than 70 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, gross violations continue throughout the world, sometimes even in the name of human rights. International institutions designed and built to protect human rights have drifted from their original mission. As human rights claims have proliferated, some claims have come into tension with one another, provoking questions and clashes about which rights are entitled to gain respect.

Pompeo outlined the issues he wants the new Commission to tackle:

I hope that the commission will revisit the most basic of questions: What does it mean to say or claim that something is, in fact, a human right? How do we know or how do we determine whether that claim that this or that is a human right, is it true, and therefore, ought it to be honored? How can there be human rights, rights we possess not as privileges we are granted or even earn, but simply by virtue of our humanity belong to us? Is it, in fact, true, as our Declaration of Independence asserts, that as human beings, we – all of us, every member of our human family – are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights?

The Commission will be chaired by Harvard Law School Professor Mary Ann Glendon.  Its other members include: Russell Berman, Peter Berkowitz, Paolo Carozza, Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Jacqueline Rivers, Meir Soloveichik, Katrina Lantos Swett, Christopher Tollefsen, and David Tse-Chien Pan.

Politico reports on the mixed reaction to Pompeo's announcement.

State Department Issues 2018 International Religious Freedom Report

On June 21, the U.S. State Department released its 2018 Report on International Religious Freedom, saying:

The annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom – the International Religious Freedom Report – describes the status of religious freedom in every country. The report covers government policies violating religious belief and practices of groups, religious denominations and individuals, and U.S. policies to promote religious freedom around the world. The U.S. Department of State submits the reports in accordance with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

Special Envoy To Monitor Anti-Semitism Is Appointed

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the appointment of  Elan S. Carr as the United States Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.  The State Department has posted Carr's biography. Most recently he served as Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County.  He is an Iraq War veteran and the son of Iraqi Jewish refugees.  As reported by Times of Israel, the Envoy position has been vacant for two years. Last month the House of Representatives passed HR 221 that would have given the Envoy ambassadorial rank and have required the President to nominate someone for the position within 90 days.

State Department Will Host Second Ministerial To Advance Religious Freedom

Last week in honor of Religious Freedom Day, the U.S. State Department announced that it will host its second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom on July 16-18, 2019, in Washington, D.C. The announcement said in part:

This Ministerial will again gather hundreds of government representatives, religious leaders, survivors of religious persecution, and members of civil society to build on the actions that began with the inaugural Ministerial last year.

State Department Hosts First-Ever Ministerial To Advance Religious Freedom

Yesterday was the first day of the U.S. State Department's 3-day Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom.  RNS reports that U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback opened the Ministerial at the State Department, urging the 350 conference participants from 80 countries to work together to advance religious freedom. The faiths represented at the State Department conference include Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Baha’is, and Yazidis.  The State Department describes the agenda of this first-ever Ministerial:

On July 24, we will equip and empower civil society organizations, including organizations working on religious freedom, to understand better how to access U.S. financial support for their efforts...

On July 25, members of civil society groups, including religious leaders and survivors of religious persecution, will convene to tell their stories, share their expertise, and ultimately unite on a path to greater religious freedom in our societies....

On July 26, government and international organization representatives will participate in plenary sessions focused on: (1) identifying global challenges to religious freedom, (2) developing innovative responses to persecution on the basis of religion, and (3) sharing new commitments to protect religious freedom for all.....

Here is the full schedule of panels. Various side events are also scheduled.

UPDATE: As reported by Blog from the Capital, the Summit ended with the Potomac Declaration and a Plan of Action. Critics contend that the Summit accomplished little.