Foreign Press Center Briefing with Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback in advance of International Religious Freedom Day, in Washington, DC.
Transcript
Hello. Thank you for joining us this morning at the Washington Foreign Press Center. Our speaker today is Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Samuel Brownback. The topic of today’s briefing is the state of religious freedom around the globe. Ambassador Brownback will start with some opening remarks and then take your questions. Ambassador?
Thank you very much for being here today, and thank you for joining us. Tomorrow we celebrate International Religious Freedom Day. It is a recognition of an act commemorating an international religious freedom act that was first passed twenty-one years ago. So, it’s been twenty-one years since we’ve had an international religious freedom act that created this job, that created the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, that created a series of laws and entities and actions to push for international religious freedom. We think particularly recently, we’ve created some real momentum in this space. Over the past two years, we’ve had two ministerials on religious freedom where we’ve brought together foreign ministers from around the world and civil society activists to talk about religious freedom, the state of it, the need for more governmental and civil society action in this space. This last ministerial we had this year was the largest human rights event ever held at state department. It’s the largest religious freedom event ever held in the world. I had over a thousand activists at it, we had over a hundred governments, and we’re continuing to get a number of governments and civil society activists both saying, “We’ve really got to address this area of religious freedom if we’re gonna really have a strong opportunity for the expansion of peace and the engagement of civilizations in a peaceful way around the world.” This year at the UN General Assembly, for the first time ever, a state, the United States, held an event on religious freedom at the general assembly. President Trump hosted that event. As I mentioned, this is the first time this has ever happened at the UN General Assembly. We had a number of heads-of-state of different countries were at that event. At the event, the president announced twenty-five million dollars that the US would put in for security of religious sites and the preservation and enhancement of religious heritage sites around the world. He also announced, as the secretary had earlier, an international religious freedom alliance that the United States was gonna recruit to gather like-minded nations from around the world to push on this topic of international religious freedom. Those nations have started to accumulate, we’ve had a number of meetings with different nations now about joining this alliance. This would be a group that would establish some basic protocols on religious freedom and push this topic as a concerted effort around the world. There’s also in the civil society area another issue that’s moving forward aggressively, the creation of religious freedom round-tables around the world, that a number of nations are establishing these round-tables, and what they are is government and civil society religious actors all coming together around the topic of religious freedom. That everybody is entitled to religious freedom all the time no matter where they are, and that this is a right that individuals have whether they’re in the majority faith, the minority faith, or no faith at all. That they have this right inherent as an individual. About twenty of these round-tables have been established now in various countries and venues around the world. Our effort is going to be, their effort is going to be, to establish a hundred of these in various countries and places throughout the world, and so that’s well on its way. I meet weekly here when I’m in town with the religious freedom round-table that we have here. It meets every Tuesday from 11 to noon, normally on Capitol Hill, and we’re getting a strong attendance and a lot of interest of how to move forward with these topics both here and then around the world. So, we think we’ve got some real momentum, we need momentum in this space. The most recent Pew research says that 80% of the world’s population lives in countries with higher severe restrictions on religious freedom, and we believe a government, a nation, a people can never reach their full potential as individuals if within their borders religious individuals are marginalized or oppressed. It’s by embracing and protection religious freedom that countries can achieve their economic aspirations, ensure their security, eradicate terrorism, and so we reaffirm our commitment as a nation to the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion including the freedom to change one’s religion or belief. So as we look at this twenty-first celebration of the act that created the office that I’m in, of International Religious Freedom Day coming up, I think there’s a real sense of hope and optimism that you’re gonna see some major things start to move in this space with all of the energy and the effort. Now there’s some galvanizing of world commitments in this space, often, and I’ll just conclude on this thought the biggest problem in policy-making is to establish common thought and to get people to start pulling together towards that. I think that common thought has been established, that we’ve got way to much religious persecution, that we’ve got too much carnage, killing, people being locked up simply for peacefully practicing their faith, and that we’re not going to achieve what we need to as civilized societies without religious freedom. And so that’s there’s a coming together of governments and of civil society and religious groups, that we need to address this, and so you’re starting to see those taking place particularly with the alliance and these round-tables, and I look for really action to start ratcheting up at even a much higher and a more aggressive level as we get these in place. With that, let me open up and attempt to take questions if you don’t mind that.
[Woman] Great, and just a reminder to please state your name and your organization and wait for me to call on you, and we’ll start with the gentleman in the back.
Thank you very much, ambassador. My name is Shin Shebawith, NHK Casting Corporation. European Congress yesterday announced the Sakharov Award goes to Professor Ilham Tohti of Xinjiang, China. He is detained in China, so what is the view this award. Do you know anything about his latest situation, and how do you approach the Chinese government to release him?
Yeah, I don’t have more current information on his latest situation. As you know, the US has been raising the issue in the situation in Xinjiang for some time. We held a sidebar event at the UN just on Xinjiang and the persecution of the Uighur people that was taking place there, and the million people that are in a concentration camp, the number of people that are missing, the number of people that have died in concentration camps in Xinjiang, and that in some press reports is starting to expand to other Muslim populations in China as well. So we’ve raised this as an extraordinary concern and as a terrible situation and something China shouldn’t do, and it’s against the individual’s rights under the UN Charter of Human Rights, it’s against the people of China’s rights under their own constitution to build and practice freedom of religion themselves. So we’ve continued to call on the Chinese government to lift these oppressive measure, to let the people out of these concentration camps, and let the people freely and peacefully practice their faith, and not be at war with faith, and we’ll continue to call on that.
[Woman] We’ll go to the lady in the middle.
Thank you, ambassador. I’m Emel Akan from the Epoch Times. I would like to ask you about another question on China, White House Economic Advisor Mr. Kudlow said that China’s human rights violations as well as protests in Hong Kong are key parts of the ongoing trade negotiations with Beijing. He said human rights is a very important part, and President Trump has made that very clear. I’m wondering how much progress has been made with respect to human rights issues in China during the talks with Chinese delegation, and are you part of these talks?
I was talking with Mr. Kudlow yesterday about this, and I’m very pleased that the human rights issue are being brought up with China. I think it’s important that these be brought up, and they be put forward. There’s not a formal set of talks like there are a formal set of trade talks going on, but the issues are being surfaced and put forward strongly by the United States and will be continued to be put forward strongly, and any venues that we have a chance to do. Just yesterday, the Vice-President gave another major address about China and the issues of human rights and religious freedom that are lacking in China, so these issues we’re going to continue to press them forward and we’re going to press them in venues any chance we get like we just did at the UN General Assembly, and it’s my hope that the Chinese will agree at some point in time to start directly addressing with us and with other communities around the world. Their horrific record on religious freedom, on religious persecution that they’re doing, and it’s not just to Xiajiang and the Muslims, it’s house church, it’s Tibetan Buddhists, it’s Falun Gong, it’s the entire really faith community.
[Woman] Pakistan in the back.
Thank you. Kashif Abbasi, Ary Streaming News in Pakistan. Sir, I have two questions actually for you. The first is, sir, nearly two million people have been removed from the list of citizens in India’s state of Assam. The representative for Assam would also raise some concerns on that. Those two million enforce that it has been done on the basis of religion. Is it a matter of concern for you?
Well, anytime a group of people are identified and then excluded based on faith, it’s a matter of concern to us, and I think to the global religious freedom community, and now the particular case you’re raising, I would want to, and I have been, looking more factually into it, so I want to know completely what the set of facts are with it, but I’ve raised many of these cases in different settings around the world. Anytime you’re excluding a group of people based on faith, they are peaceful practitioners of their faith, but I want to know specifically more in cases like that, and that’s what we are looking factually into it today.
[Kashif] Today’s a concerning situation in Indian Kashmir to people are not allowed to practice their faith for the last many, many months, as there is a curfew and lockdown in the Kashmir Valley. Sir, we you like to also comment on that?
Yeah, and it’s the same situation. We believe people should be allowed to freely practice their faith wherever they are whoever they are as long as they’re peacefully practicing their faith, and that applies everywhere all the time. And I’ll be raising these issues. Again, these are things that we try to get all the factual setting and then try to raise them in constructive ways whenever we can and however we can, and we will do that.
[Woman] Thank you. Let’s go in the back.
Yes, thank you, ambassador. My question is because we know it for years, Chinese Communist Party has been trying to export this religious persecution overseas through its influence operation. Recently, people just found that for example when they search on the Google website for, “What is Falun Gong?”, what automatically pop-up on the tab recommended by Google the website controlled by Chinese government. The government website. So, just wondering what do you think about how can we hold these American firms also accountable to stand up for our values and not become part of the Chinese persecution?
You know this that you’re following is a robust debate in the country right now, whether it’s the tech companies or it’s sports entities, this is a big robust debate, and it should be. These issues should be brought up, and they should be discussed. We stand for freedom of speech. We stand for freedom of religion. We believe these are rights people are entitled to everywhere and all the time, that they’re inherent with being an individual, that they’re rights the government should protect and certainly applies to our citizens and people that are here. There are then individuals and companies, you know, they say, “Well, I’m looking at this way, “I’m considering that,” but I think it’s important that we constantly have this discussion, and we have it in a robust way as a way of really defending and continuing to educate and talk with people about what these rights are. I’ve been involved in this base for twenty years. These things constantly come up, and they come up on factual settings. You got a major principle, and you come up, “Okay, what about in this case?”, and then that’s where you have a robust public discussion about it. Sometimes Congress gets involved, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes an administration gets involved, sometimes it doesn’t. But I think that the important thing is is that there’s constantly really a reaffirmation of these basic principles that people are entitled to, and that they’re entitled to in practice not just in theory, and that then they have to be determined in a specific type of setting, but I think we’re always at our best as a nation when we stand in on fundamental principles, and we stand there regardless of who’s on the other side, but we stand for these basics. Religious freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, that these are your rights as individuals, and they apply all the time.
[Woman] Let’s go to Egypt.
Thank you, sir. I mean, I’m Thomas for Ahram Weekly Egypt. I will try to talk more about forest and the trees, and I followed you almost for twenty years in your religious freedom or this career that you have with your different bases, and it seems that over years the religious freedom is not improved as a matter of fact. I mean, we hold my respect of people who are trying to say different thing. How do you see that this can be handled in a better way or in a way that is become more practical and people face what they’re doing or what they’re not doing in regarding I mean you mentioned the round-table discussions, what from your perspective what is the obstacle that others are facing or we are facing here in United States in talking to each other frankly and about everything related to religious freedom even though I mean I’m not sure if the religious freedom include those who are not even believing in religious which is a fact of important in this time in 2019 and in any time. So can you reflect little bit part of your experience regarding this bigger question that I’m trying to raise instead of being geographically here or there or this country or that country or this religion or that religion?
I mean, you know I think it’s a fair question, and you look at the raw numbers and you’d say the situation has gotten worse. It’s not gotten better. And I think that’s accurate. If I look at the raw numbers, I do think there’s been a momentum shift within the past year in particularly that a number of Western countries are now starting to say, “We’ve got to go at this issue.” I think for a long time the West wanted to just not deal with the issue of religion, and just hope it kind of went away over time. But that now, we have to deal with this. There’s just so much carnage and death and people that are being locked up and you can go to many countries and see it. You can see it in the United States. You can see it in New Zealand at Christ Church. You can see it Sri Lanka. You can see it in Egypt. We have to and so that my hope is in that you’re seeing some momentum shift taking place, you have the first ever freedom of religion event at the UN General Assembly. You’ve had the first ever Ministerial and now the second one on this topic. You’ve got this alliance coming together that hasn’t existed before, this’ll be the first one the biggest new human rights pushes and organizations that have happened in the last several decades. These aren’t panaceas, but they are showing that there’s more global focus on it than there’s been and you can’t just ignore a problem and just hope it gets better. One final point I’d make to you is a gentleman who was of a minority religion, it was a gentleman who was a Bahai, and I was saying to him in the speech I was giving it hasn’t gotten better. And he said, “You know I want to give you “a different spin on that.” He lived most Bahai in one country that he was aware of, and I’m not going to name it right now, but he said, “You know the authorities know “where we all live, about two-hundred-fifty thousand of us “in this country, and authorities know where we are. “If you guys hadn’t been pushing for religious freedom, “we’d all been killed by now. “Now, we don’t get to participate “in this society like we like. “We’d like to go to the schools that we’d want to go to, “we’d like to get better health care than we’re getting, “but we’re not dead. “And if you guys hadn’t been pushing this, “we probably all would have been killed. “So you’ve done good in that sense.” You know, I was going, well, if we’ve done that. Yes, than that is a very good thing. It’s kind of a low bar, but it is something, and it’s a substantial something. And I do hope that we’re at a moment where you’re gonna start actually seeing this situation substantially improve in places, and that there’s this momentum. As you noted, I’ve been around this topic a long time. I’ve not seen this kind of momentum before. I’ve never seen an administration like this one lean into the topic like this one is, the Trump administration. And you’re starting to get some Western partners. The Brits are leaning into it more. The Hungarians are leaning into it more. You’re starting to see Middle Eastern countries saying, “This is not good for our long term growth, “that we’ve become this purified monoculture. “One brand of Islam. “This doesn’t serve us well as a nation to grow “in the future if we exclude everybody else.” The leaders are saying that. So that’s why I continued to soldier on, and I believe we’re really at an era where things are going to start moving back a better way. Thanks for that question, I’m gonna end on that cause I think that’s a good place to cap it. Thank you very much.
[Woman] Thank you for joining us. (papers shuffling)