JBI Human Rights

Advocacy for International Religious Freedom and Human Rights

A new volume of essays analyzing strategies of advocacy for international religious freedom has recently been published by The Review on Faith & International Affairs (Fall 2012).  It examines diverse approaches by a wide range of actors and from different perspectives.  One article, "'If Not Now When?': Jewish Advocacy for Freedom of Religion" by JBI Director Felice Gaer, examines Jewish advocacy for international religious freedom and related human rights from the Holocaust and the founding of the United Nations to current times, using this advocacy to uphold universal human rights standards.

Gaer argues that Jewish advocacy for freedom of religion and related human rights has been indelibly shaped by the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were annihilated, as well as by the experiences of expulsion, discrimination, and violence against Jews throughout the millennia.  The most prominent and successful particularist Jewish advocacy effort was the movement for Jews to be allowed to depart from the Soviet Union.  Efforts by Jewish organizations and advocates to advance religious freedom are also anchored in and directly influenced by universal elements in Judaism that value all human life and call for equality for all before the law, which has translated into support for efforts that guarantee universal human rights through bodies like the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).  As part of the interplay between the universal and the particular, Jewish advocacy has also reflected a sense of what is possible – a realism about how to achieve the idealistic goals of religious freedom and related human rights.  The strategy remains that by defending and respecting each individual’s rights, all will flourish and be protected. 

Helsinki Commission Pressed to Strengthen OSCE Human Rights Protections

On July 28, a joint State Department-Congressional commission devoted to integrating security and human rights concerns in Europe held a high-level hearing with US assistant secretaries of state to discuss reforms to the multilateral regional organization founded by the 1975 Helsinki Accords.

Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) consultant Catherine Fitzpatrick testified before the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), an independent US government body, on the subject of US policy regarding the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an inter-governmental organization comprised of 56 Member States from Europe, Central Asia and North America. In testimony at the session, entitled "U.S. Policy and the OSCE: Making Good on Commitments," Fitzpatrick offered recommendations for strengthening the OSCE's ability to respond to serious human rights violations.

Featured at the hearing were Philip Gordon, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Alexander Vershbow, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and Dr. Michael Halzel, Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations. 

Fitzpatrick's testimony stressed that US officials should focus on strengthening the organization's capacity to investigate and condemn allegations of human rights abuse by OSCE Member States.  She noted that although fact-finding into allegations of serious human rights violations is at the heart of the organization's mission, recent years have seen OSCE fact-finding attempts in Central Asia and beyond thwarted by  governments that refuse to tolerate criticism of their human rights records.  Fitzpatrick called for the U.S. to work to strengthen and coordinate the efforts of the various OSCE bodies that have been tasked with fact-finding responsibilities in the past, so that future fact-finding efforts might function more independently and professionally. 

Looking Back on the Role of OSCE Field Missions

With intensive reflections under way on the future of the OSCE as an institution and force for human rights and human rights, particularly under the controversial chair of Kazakhstan, JBI thought it would be useful to provide a report we did a decade ago in 1999 on the role of the OSCE field missions and other human rights institutions.

The field missions -- where human rights are "operationalized" in the words of Amb. John Kornblum -- are more important than ever, and more under threat than ever.

JBI OSCE Report

JBI on Religious Freedom for Uighurs and in Kazakhstan

Testimony of Felice Gaer, Chair, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
Before the Subcommittee on Human Rights, International Organizations, and International Terrorism of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, June 10, 2009: The Uighurs:  A History of Persecution.

Kazakhstan:  Tougher Religion Law Under Constitutional Review.

At a meeting on religious freedom and violence at the Jacob Blaustein Institute in New York on December 8, 2009, Cole Durham, director of the Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University Law School and member of the OSCE Advisory Panel on Freedom of Religion, explained that Kazakhstan tightened its law on religion in response to two factors: an influx of various people from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan with a background in extremism and the spread of groups like Hizb-ut-Tahrir seeking rule by a caliphate; and increased proselytizing of "new religions" which could be construed as "any denomination formed since [the days of Martin] Luther and [John] Calvin," Durham said.