Written by Don Byrd
The U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee unanimously passed HR 1150, the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, sending it to the full Senate for consideration. Among other things, the bill requires the State Department to develop a mandatory curriculum for training all Foreign Service officers in the value of religious freedom.
Committee chair Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) issued a statement following the bill’s passage. Here is an excerpt:
“This bill will help ensure that defending religious freedom remains at the core of our engagement in even the most repressive parts of the world and that we have the most effective policies in place to be successful,” said Corker. “I am proud of the unanimous support this legislation received in our committee and will push for timely consideration on the Senate floor.”
Other provisions of the law would move the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom position (currently held by Rabbi David Saperstein) to report directly to the Secretary of State, and recommends that the International Religious Freedom office should be “elevated.”
The bill creates a “Designated Persons List of individuals sanctioned for participating or directing religious freedom abuses.” It also requires the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom “to compile and make publicly available regularly updated lists of persons imprisoned, detained, disappeared, placed under house arrest, tortured, or subject to forced renunciations of faith by: (1) a foreign government recommended for designation as a country of particular concern for religious freedom, or (2) a violent nonstate actor.”
The legislation passed the U.S. House earlier this year. If the Senate passes it, HR 1150 will go to the President for his signature.
