Aug. 26, 2005
August 26, 2005
Just a quick note today to alert you to an almost-done visit to China by representatives of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The Aug. 14-28 visit may produce some recommendations to the Bush administration about how to proceed when advocating human rights and religious freedom (both in shamefully short supply) in China. It's not yet clear when such a report would be issued, but China should be high up on the list of countries where America should be insisting that the government enforce internationally adopted and recognized human and religious rights.
The commission was created in 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of religion abroad. It is supposed to give policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of State and the Congress. On the whole, it's done good work in this area, though too often the Clinton and Bush administrations have ignored its advice.
I think you'll learn some interesting things by poking around in the commission's Web site. Pay special attention to its annual reports.
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