American Jewish Committee Urges U.S. Commission On Security And Cooperation In Europe To Adopt Ten-Point Plan To Respond To Religious Persecution Abroad

American Jewish Committee
Tuesday, 9 December 1997

In testimony before Members of Congress, in Philadelphia on December 5th, at a special hearing on religious liberty for the 55-nation Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the American Jewish Committee urged the adoption of a ten-point plan to respond to religious persecution abroad.

Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC's Director of European Affairs, told the commission that the experience of the American Jewish community in working for freedom of Jews in the former Soviet Union presented "lessons to be learned" that could be applied to assist people elsewhere "who are suffering death, torture, or other grievous abuse of their rights because of their religious beliefs."

Rabbi Baker noted the importance of an international advocacy movement to the success of the Soviet Jewry campaign, as well as its inclusive nature, its attention to meticulous documentation of human rights abuses, and careful consideration of goals and "tactics that would best serve those goals."

The AJC's ten-point plan includes, in particular, a recommendation that sanctions be country-specific and situation-specific. Other points of the plan include:

- Strengthening the universality of all human rights norms, including those affirming religious freedom;

- Encouraging interreligious contacts;

- Speaking out and leading new initiatives wherever possible. At summit meetings, and other high-level encounters, the U.S. should expend greater effort to put religious freedom and other human rights issues into a position of prominence;

- Promoting specialized education at home and abroad;

- Beefing up the field presence at every U.S. embassy to identify and prevent religious persecution while promoting religious freedom;

- Analyzing situations and developing ways to convey facts and concern over religious persecution when and where it exists;

- Strengthening local human rights institutions;

- Working with new constituencies such as women, human rights, religious communities, business activists, and other local constituencies;

- Reviewing and revising U.S. asylum procedures to make them more fair.

Felice Gaer, director of AJC's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, originally presented this ten-point plan before the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Religious Persecution Abroad on July 2, 1997. Rabbi Baker's testimony on December 5th before the U.S Commission on OSCE reinforced the AJC support for the plan's adoption. He emphasized that the U.S. must "maintain its global role as a defender of religious minorities against persecution."

In his overview of changes to Jewish communities in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union, Baker said, "Anti-semitism remains, albeit in different forms." New freedoms have allowed for the printing of "rabidly anti-Semtic newspapers" and "the development of political leaders and parties, espousing openly anti-Semitic themes and parties."

Rabbi Baker noted that interreligious cooperation has had an enormous positive impact in the U.S. but has been largely ignored in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. He urged that the revival of religious life and the protection of religious minorities must be reinforced "by expressions and actions of interreligious cooperation."

"Finally," he concluded, "we must recognize that we speak about religious communities in the former Soviet Union that have been deprived of the possibility of educating and training their own religious leaders for several generations." Baker said that until they are able to establish their own education and leadership programs, "they will continue to rely on support and assistance from the West, and we must be able to move back and forth freely and unhindered."

The commission hearing was on "The Status of Religious Liberty for Minority Faiths in Europe and the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org