A U.S. commission that will investigate violations of religious
freedom around the world is fully staffed, funded, and ready to
start work. Congress approved funding for the 10-member
Commission on International Freedom May 20, the office of U.S.
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) told Religion Today. The commission was
created as part of the International Religious Freedom Act, which
Congress passed last year.
...The commission will recommend a range of policy options to the
administration depending on the severity of the persecution. Its
findings will be submitted to the Congress, the secretary of
state, and the president by May 1 of each year. The commission
will "make a big difference in helping to identify and put an end
to religious freedom violations around the world," Wolf said.
...An ambassador-at-large will head the Office on International
Religious Freedom at the State Department. Robert Seiple (see
link #1 below), former president of the Christian relief and
development group World Vision, was sworn into that position (see
link #2 below) May 5.
...Commission members are Elliott Abrams, president of Ethics and
Public Policy; Laila Al-Maryati, president of the Muslim Women’s
League; John Bolton of the American Enterprise Institute; Firuz
Kazemzadeh, an official in the Baha’i religion; Archbishop
Theodore McCarrick of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Newark, N.J.;
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center;
Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at
Freedom House; Charles Smith, a judge on the Washington State
Supreme Court; and Michael Young, dean of George Washington
University Law School.
#1. ReligionToday.com
#2. Secretary.state.gov

Reprinted with permission from Religion Today, http://www.ReligionToday.com."

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