U.S. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM COMMISSION CLOSE TO ANTI-INDIA GROUPS

Presence of USCIRF official at IAMCsponsored event has raised questions about USCIRF's impartiality.

- ABHINANDAN MISHR

On 28 February, a senior official with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Stephen Schneck, while speaking at an event in Washington, organised by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), asked the United States government to condemn the Indian government for what he termed as “egregious violations of human rights and religious freedoms”.

Schneck was speaking at an event where a report by IAMC titled, “Persecution as State Policy”—which claims to provide “detailed accounts of violence by state and non-state actors against religious minorities in India”—was being released.

The USCIRF, which reports to the US State Department, draws its legislative existence from the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and is not a non-governmental organisation, interest group, or advocacy organisation but a Congressionally created entity. It claims that it uses “international standards to monitor religious freedom violations globally, and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress”. The USCIRF commissioners are appointed by the US President and Congressional leaders of both political parties. As per its man date, it “monitors religious freedom in other countries through the lens of international human rights standard” and uses its report to push the State Department to impose sanctions on the countries that it believes is engaging in religious persecution.