Promoting religious freedom

Richard A. Sokerka

In 1998, the International Religious Freedom Act created the International Religious Freedom office in the U.S. State Department and also the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan commission that advises the State Department. Because of this Act, ways to promote religious freedom — especially in countries where religious minorities are consistently persecuted — were placed into U.S. foreign policy.

Despite having this as part of our foreign policy, past and present administrations have often failed to use these diplomatic tools and have not made a priority of promoting religious freedom.

Seeing this lack of action, most especially from the present administration and its State Department, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), authored a bill providing significant upgrades to the landmark religious freedom law. Rep. Smith’s legislation passed the House last month by unanimous voice vote.

“The world is experiencing an unprecedented crisis of international religious freedom, a crisis that continues to create millions of victims; a crisis that undermines liberty, prosperity and peace; a crisis that poses a direct challenge to the U.S. interests in the Middle East, Russia, China and sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere,” Rep. Smith said in a statement after the vote.

Rep. Smith’s new bill adds to the role of religious freedom in diplomacy: the Ambassador at-Large for International Religious Freedom can report directly to the Secretary of State, It also expands religious freedom training for U.S. diplomats.

The original law had also established the “countries of particular concern” list, which the State Department can use to name where the worst violations of religious freedom are taking place, and gives the U.S. legal authority to take action such as economic sanctions. The new bill would create a “tier system” to separate the violators and pinpoint more closely those violators that are not complying with the U.S. And, very importantly, it expands executive power to name “non-state actors,” like the terror groups Boko Haram and ISIS, who are committing genocide against Christians and other religious groups on a daily basis.

Religious freedom is under attack as never before. Legislation, such as that proposed by Rep. Smith, can help to turn the tide on these attacks and prioritize the U.S. standing in the forefront to protect religious freedoms.