Director of AJC's Jacob Blaustein Institute Appointed to U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

American Jewish Committee
Monday, 2 July 2001

Felice Gaer, director of the American Jewish Committee's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, has been appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Ms. Gaer will be one of ten members of the Commission, which was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to give independent recommendations to the executive branch and the Congress. Ms. Gaer has served as director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute since 1993. She was elected in 1999 to a four-year term as a member of the Committee Against Torture, an official United Nations body that examines reports from 123 countries on their compliance with the Convention Against Torture.

She is a member or officer of several human rights organizations, including the Steering Committee of Human Rights Watch/Helsinki and the International Human Rights Council of the Carter Center, the International League for Human Rights and is the author of more than 25 articles.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom consists of nine voting Commissioners and the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, who is a non-voting member. Three Commissioners are selected by the President, two by the leaders of the President's party in Congress, and four by the congressional leaders of the other party. Ms. Gaer was appointed by House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt.

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, founded in 1971, works to strengthen innovative programs that advance the protection of human rights and those who defend them globally. Its chair is Robert S. Rifkind.

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