State Deparment urged to take more action on global religious freedom

Advocates of international religious freedom are applauding the State Department for its recent report of religious liberty but also calling for it to do more to address nations that fail to respect this right.

Katrina Lantos Swett, who chairs the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said that the State Department has done a "commendable job of cataloguing the wide-ranging manifestations of religious freedom abuses around the world."

However, she added that the "next step, and real challenge, is convincing policymakers that prioritizing religious freedom through our bilateral and multilateral relationships is both a moral imperative and serves our national interests."

It will also be a challenge to convince "foreign governments to make needed improvements," she said.

On July 30, the State Department released its International Religious Freedom Report for 2011. The report outlines violations of religious freedom in countries around the world last year.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that the report shows that "the world is sliding backwards" in terms of religious liberty, particularly in the areas of violent extremism, growing blasphemy laws and an increase in anti-Semitism.

She emphasized the importance of religious liberty in forming stable democracies and allowing for economic and political development. The U.S. has committed itself to dialogue and programs to promote religious liberty in nations where this freedom is not currently respected, she said.

The report was met with a mixed response from several prominent groups and individuals.

The U.S. Commission on International Freedom "welcomed" the findings but urged the State Department to "promptly designate" problematic countries and to "follow up those designations with vigorous U.S. diplomatic activity to seek improvements."

An advising body to the president, Congress and State Department, the bipartisan religious freedom commission makes recommendations that specific countries which tolerate "particularly severe" violations of religious freedom be designated as "countries of particular concern."

Secretary Clinton did not name any new countries of particular concern when the recent report was released. The eight previous countries on the list - Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan - have been designated as offenders for multiple years.

Lantos Swett and fellow commission member Robert George, a law professor at Princeton University, co-authored an August 1 article in the Moscow Times raising concern about the lack of religious freedom in Russia, as well as the United States' failure to address the problem.

Other religious freedom advocates have cautioned that the U.S. has failed to implement unified and comprehensive efforts to improve respect for religious freedom in nations that have been designated as countries of particular concern.

They argue that dialogue alone is not enough to bring about change, and firm sanctions are needed against problematic countries.

Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who cosponsored the 1998 legislation that requires the State Department to issue the annual religious freedom report, voiced concern that the administration is not making religious freedom a priority.

He argued that the department has shown "very little commitment" to the cause of religious freedom in recent years.

Smith highlighted specific problems with China and Egypt, where reports of harassment and persecution have arisen.

"Reusing existing sanctions, as has in the past been done with China, misses the point and fails to achieve results," he said, stressing the need for new sanctions specifically targeting religious freedom.

"Egypt's failure to take even the most basic action to ensure justice for and protect its Coptic citizens from crimes, including the abduction and forced conversion of Coptic women, should mean a cut in aid dollars," he added, noting that Clinton waived the conditions attached by Congress to the $1.3 billion in aid to Egypt this year.

"The real question is, what will the administration do differently than simply dialogue with abusers?" Smith asked. He called for the State Department to "move quickly to designate Countries of Particular Concern and attach appropriate sanctions."

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