IRFA IN THE FIRST DECADE
USCIRF would be comprised of nine members, three appointed by the President and six appointed by the House and Senate leadership. The IRF Ambassador, though originally intended as a full member, would serve ex officio as a nonvoting member of the Commission. The general role of what was meant to be a temporary commission was to review the State Department’s human rights report — the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom and its Executive Summary — and make policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State and Congress on international religious freedom. Critics, however, saw USCIRF as an unnecessary and unwanted watchdog agency that would add another layer of complexity to an already difficult topic while depleting scarce resources. Both USCIRF and the State Department office, for example, were required to prepare annual reports, with USCIRF, unlike the State Department, mandated to make recommendations for U.S. policy — in addition to the human rights report the State Department already issued each year. Though cumbersome, the annual reporting process with the State Department’s designation of countries of particular concern (CPCs) would prove to be a powerful tool for holding bad actors accountable and elevating the plight of the persecuted. It would also fuel the ongoing internal debate as to the best strategy for promoting and securing religious freedom abroad: carrots (quiet diplomacy) versus sticks (naming and shaming). As anticipated, USCIRF and the IRF office did not always arrive at the same conclusions. Nor were they uniformly confident about each other’s motives. As each worked to carve out and identify its role within the IRFA mandate, a certain level of tension emerged between the Commission and the IRF office that, by some accounts, persists two decades later, albeit to a lesser degree. That tension contributed to an underlying disconnect between the IRF office and the very department (the State Department) largely responsible for crafting and deploying U.S. foreign policy.
2000 Clinton Administration
“I think it takes watchdogs to just make sure we keep raising our voices. If we relax for a few minutes, it’s gone and we have to work again really hard to get it back.” – Faith McDonnell, religious freedom advocate
“Most nations don’t want bad publicity. More often than not, a very public naming of governments and nongovernment entities is the right strategy, but in any particular case, you have to exercise judgment. And you are not always going to get that right. There are times when we hit too hard, but sometimes the opposite is true.” – Dr. Robert P. George, former USCIRF Chairman
USCIRF issues first annual report May 1
IRFA IN THE FIRST DECADE
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