[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 37 (Friday, March 27, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E500-E501]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT'S STRONG SUPPORT FOR RELIGIOUS 
                                FREEDOM

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 27, 1998

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, March 12, the Congressional 
Human Rights Caucus held an important meeting with a number of the 
distinguished members of the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom. I 
had the great honor of chairing that meeting of the Caucus. The 
Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom was established last year by 
the Secretary of State to report to the Secretary and to the President 
on issues of religious persecution and appropriate United States 
government policy on religious liberty issues.
  The Advisory Committee is composed of a number of distinguished 
religious, academic, human rights and foreign policy leaders. The 
Committee members have spent a great deal of time meeting and examining 
the relationship between religious freedom and American foreign policy.
  Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, the Advisory Committee on Religious 
Freedom Abroad presented its Interim Report to the Secretary of State 
and the President. Our hearing on Thursday focused on this significant 
report. In order to deal with serious, and in many places growing, 
pressure upon believers who wish to practice their religion in peace, 
the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad has met a number of 
times this past year and has prepared an excellent report on the 
problem of religious persecution. The report of the Advisory Committee 
includes a series of thoughtful and useful recommendations for United 
States policy to encourage and promote religious liberty.
  I am delighted, Mr. Speaker, that Secretary Albright began 
immediately to implement the recommendations made by the Committee. At 
the time the Advisory Committee's Interim Report was made public, she 
announced that she was implementing the first recommendation of the 
Committee by designating a new senior-level coordinator at the 
Department of State who will have responsibility for integrating 
concern for religious freedom into U.S. foreign policy and for 
developing a coordinated interagency strategy on this issue of great 
importance to the American people.
  As Secretary Albright said when she met with journalists at the time 
the report was released,


       America is a leader in promoting religious freedom because 
     it serves our interests and because it is right. We hope to 
     pursue that goal with even more vigor and effectiveness in 
     the days ahead.

  Remarks by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright on the Interim 
Report to the Secretary of State and the President of the United States 
 From the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad, Washington, 
                         D.C., January 23, 1998

       Good afternoon. I wanted to come down here today to bring 
     to your attention the very constructive and timely interim 
     report I've just received from my advisory committee on 
     religious freedom.
       I very much welcome this report. Although I've just begun 
     to study it, its overall direction and tone is very much in 
     keeping with the Administration's own intentions and 
     aspirations. So I'm pleased to tell you now what I told the 
     committee just a little bit earlier, which is that I'm taking 
     immediate action on the report's first and most important 
     recommendation.
       I will designate a new, senior-level coordinator within the 
     Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor to ensure that 
     our efforts to advance religious freedom are integrated 
     successfully into our broader foreign policy. The 
     coordinator's responsibilities will include developing a 
     strategy for appropriate overall implementation of the 
     advisory committee's recommendation. This work will be done 
     under the direction of Assistant Secretary John Shattuck, and 
     in consultation with the White House, religious leaders, 
     members of the advisory committee and of Congress.
       In this way, we can assure the American people and the 
     committee that its best ideas will be brought to life, not 
     studied to death. I also assured the committee that I 
     consider the promotion of religious freedom to be an integral 
     component of US foreign policy to be pursued not in 
     isolation, but as part of our efforts to increase the respect 
     for human rights around the world.
       That's why I've urged our diplomats to raise our concerns 
     about religious freedom energetically; report on these issues 
     thoroughly; and maintain contact with NGOs and local 
     religious leaders on a regular basis. We will continue these 
     and other efforts and give serious consideration to the 
     committee's ideas on how we can do them better.
       As we speak, the resilience and depth of the human desire 
     to worship freely is on display in Cuba Decades of repression 
     could not vanquish the thirst for religious liberty on that 
     island, just as it has not diminished the desire among the 
     Cuban people for political liberty. The Cuban Government did 
     the right thing in permitting His Holiness, the Pope, to 
     accept the invitation of his church to visit.
       Let us pray that the message of freedom and respect for the 
     individual which he is conveying will influence the direction 
     of government policies long after this historic visit is 
     concluded so that Cuba, indeed, becomes more open to the 
     world, and the world can, indeed, become more open to Cuba.
       In closing, I want to thank publicly every member of the 
     religious freedom advisory committee. This is a committee 
     uniquely

[[Page E501]]

     qualified to discuss and review America's approach to 
     promoting religious freedom abroad. Its members include 
     religious leaders who represent millions of Americans of all 
     major faiths and denominations, and scholars who have 
     dedicated their professional lives to the study of issues 
     related to religious liberty.
       In the course of their work, they interviewed such eminent 
     figures as the Dalai Lama, Cardinal Daly of Northern Ireland 
     and Pastor Robert Fu of China. The committee clearly took its 
     work very seriously, and we take it seriously as well.
       America is a leader in promoting religious freedom because 
     it serves our interests and because it is right. With the 
     committee's counsel, we hope to pursue that goal with even 
     more vigor and effectiveness in the days ahead.

     

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