Ten Years of U.S. Efforts to Promote Religious Freedom

October 17, 2008

Oct. 27 marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the International Religious Freedom Act, a law that made the promotion of religious freedom a basic aim of U.S. foreign policy. The passage of the legislation marked the culmination of a campaign of unlikely religious allies, who went on to champion other international human rights causes. Pew Forum Visiting Senior Fellow Allen Hertzke, an eyewitness observer of the birth and growth of the international religious freedom movement describes the controversy surrounding the passage of the legislation and discusses its impact on religious freedom worldwide.

Featuring:
Allen Hertzke, Visiting Senior Fellow, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life; Presidential Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma

Interviewer:
Mark O'Keefe, Associate Director, Web Editorial, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
In the following excerpt, ellipses have been omitted to facilitate reading. Read the full interview at pewforum.org.

In your 2004 book, Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights, you wrote that the International Religious Freedom Act "is one of the most sweeping human rights statutes on the books and the only one of its kind in the world." What makes this bill unique?

Because of this legislation, the promotion of religious freedom is a core objective of American foreign policy. There is no other country on earth that you can say that about -- a major purpose of America's global leadership is, in fact, promoting religious freedom and fighting persecution.

The legislation is sweeping because it created a new infrastructure in American foreign policy. This includes a new State Department office and an ambassador-at-large position devoted exclusively to promoting international religious freedom and raising awareness of the plight of religious minorities around the world.

Can you elaborate on what the International Religious Freedom Act mandated?

The legislation tries to expose the problem of violations of religious freedom and then prescribe some actions by the American government to address them. The bill mandated that the State Department produce an annual report on the status of religious freedom in every country in the world. It then charged the ambassador with recommending diplomatic actions in response to the findings of that report. There are a whole set of calibrated actions ranging from a personal demarche, which is just a statement from a diplomat to another diplomat, to economic sanctions against a country that egregiously violates religious freedom.

The president is required to take some action against countries that practice severe religious persecution, and he must publicly state what that action is. If the president determines that there's a reason to waive that sanction, he can do so, but he has to do so publicly.

In addition, the legislation created a blue-ribbon commission on international religious freedom that is independent of the State Department. The commission's job is to act as a watchdog of the State Department.

Who were the original players in this movement?

The campaign for religious freedom attracted a broad set of unlikely allies. There were conservative evangelicals working hand-in-hand with liberal Jewish leaders, Tibetan Buddhists, Iranian Baha'is, Muslim Uighurs from China and other religious groups.

In addition to religious leaders, key congressional leaders of both parties became strong advocates for religious freedom legislation. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives such as Republicans Frank Wolf of Virginia and Chris Smith of New Jersey worked with senators such as then-Democrat Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. Ultimately, it was a very bipartisan piece of legislation.

Your book describes tensions that arose in the effort to get the legislation approved. What happened?

There were two competing visions for how best to promote religious freedom through American foreign policy and, originally, two different pieces of legislation -- one that passed the House and another that passed the Senate. What's interesting is that the competing approaches did not break down along traditional liberal versus conservative lines. One vision saw itself as fighting against persecution in a visible, tough way that involved the threat of serious sanctions. The other saw itself as using calibrated, quiet, diplomatic measures to induce changes in the behavior of governments.

The final legislation embodied both approaches, with a State Department Office of International Religious Freedom that generally engages in more quiet diplomacy and an independent United States Commission on International Religious Freedom that exposes countries that are engaging in religious persecution -- naming them, shaming them and calling for tough sanctions.

Since the legislation initially focused only on the persecution of Christians, some critics felt it was an attempt by Republican politicians to thank or repay evangelical Christians for their political support.

Yes, the original impetus of the campaign was focused on the persecution of Christians around the world. In a way, that wasn't a narrow cause because the persecution of Christians is actually a broad problem in a number of countries. Nonetheless, that was perceived as narrowly focused on one religious community.

As the legislation evolved, it was broadened to include all religious communities and especially any religious minorities persecuted for their faith. The legislative campaign acted as a magnet, attracting disparate religious minorities who saw the opportunity to have the American government champion their cause. So through the natural process of congressional compromise and evolution, the coalition got broader and broader as time went on.

Some foreign critics have asked this question: Who made the U.S. the policeman for human rights around the world? Why should the U.S. preach to the rest of the world about religious freedom when it has more than its share of religious strife and problems?

There was a concern that the U.S. would be perceived as heavy handed in its policing of internal religious conditions in nearly 200 countries. But the drafters of the legislation were very careful to point to United Nations covenants as the standards by which countries would be judged. In that sense, supporters say, the U.S. is not attempting to impose its own will on the rest of the world but is merely calling upon countries to live up to the international agreements they themselves have signed - United Nations declarations on human rights, international covenants on religious freedom and so forth.

I think that over time the detailed research that the State Department undertakes has gained a certain credibility for the effort. Countries around the world, especially other democracies, often use the reports themselves in promoting religious freedom through their own diplomatic initiatives.

On what countries has the U.S. shined the spotlight of scrutiny, and what impact, if any, has that had?

In the language of the legislation, there are "countries of particular concern." They have included North Korea, China, Burma [also known as Myanmar], Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, Eritrea and Uzbekistan.

Human rights advances are often incremental, as we've learned from the past. But there have been indications of real progress because of this legislation. Dissidents around the world know that their cause is being picked up by the U.S. government. Religious prisoners in jail hear about the fact that they have been named by our State Department officials or by the president of the United States in postings in our embassies.

Because of State Department diplomacy, Vietnam has actually released religious prisoners, relaxed its restrictions on religious communities and allowed Buddhists, Christians and others to more freely practice their religion.

There has also been some impact on Saudi Arabia, though certainly not enough to satisfy many activists. One of the things that has come out of this whole initiative is the fact that the Saudis have been funding worldwide extremist literature that preached hostility toward Christians, Jews, Shiites and others, and that called for jihad against unbelievers. The Saudis have been very embarrassed by the reports from the State Department and from the commission and have pledged to clamp down on the kind of virulent literature they provide in their own schools and in mosques around the world. In light of the 9/11 attacks and the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, some Saudi authorities have come to the conclusion that they have to deal with the way their own literature is promoting a very militant and dangerous brand of Islam. And that's been an issue that has been taken up because of this legislation.

Have any actual sanctions been imposed?

This has been a matter of contention by religious advocates. In the case of Saudi Arabia, President Bush has waived sanctions in the interest of national security. Still, the Saudis have not been happy about the way they've been portrayed in State Department reports.

Sanctions on China, Sudan, Burma and North Korea have been, in diplomatic language, "double-hatted"; in other words, sanctions that were already in existence were just designated as the sanctions to apply to the religious freedom violations. This is a matter of great concern among those in the advocacy community who feel that the law has not been enforced as vigorously by the State Department as they had hoped.

Read the full interview, including links to referenced material at pewforum.org.