Commentary: Release every religious prisoner of conscience
OCTOBER 27, 2016 — 3:01 AM EDT
By Thomas J. Reese and Daniel Mark
Father Thomas J. Reese, S.J., (treesesj@ncronline.org) is chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (www.uscirf.gov). Daniel Mark (dmark@uscirf.gov) serves as vice chairman and is an assistant professor of political science and Navy ROTC battalion professor at Villanova University.
Abdul Shakoor is a member of the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan. Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi are leaders of the Baha'i community in Iran. Patriarch Abune Antonios headed the Orthodox Church in Eritrea.
These brave people share one tragic circumstance: They have been detained by their own governments, the culmination of a harsh denial of their religious freedom, a freedom that is enshrined in international human rights standards and laws.
Because they cannot speak for themselves, we must speak for these religious prisoners of conscience and for countless others who have been silenced. We do so as chair and vice chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). And we do so today, on International Religious Freedom Day, which marks the enactment on Oct. 27, 1998, of the International Religious Freedom Act.
In addition to creating an international religious freedom office in the State Department, the Religious Freedom Act established USCIRF as an independent, bipartisan federal body to monitor religious freedom abuses abroad and provide policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state, and Congress.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20161027_Commentary__Release_every_religious_prisoner_of_conscience.html
http://www.uscirf.gov/
