WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF), an independent and bipartisan federal agency advising the
Administration and Congress, has elected Dean Michael K. Young to serve as
Chair. Commissioner Young succeeds Felice D. Gaer, who was elected
Vice Chair together with Nina Shea. The election follows the Commission's
practice of alternating the post of Chair yearly between Democratic and
Republican appointees. The Chair is chosen by the Commissioners
themselves.
Commissioner Young is dean of the George Washington University Law School.
Prior to that, he was the Fuyo Professor of Japanese Law and Legal Institutions
at the Columbia University School of Law. At Columbia, he also served as
Director of the Center for Japanese Legal Studies, the Center for Korean Legal
Studies, and the Project on Religion, Rights and Religious Freedom. Dean
Young has been a Visiting Professor and Scholar at the Law Faculties of the
University of Tokyo, Waseda University and Nihon University. He has
also been a Japan Foundation Fellow at Columbia University. During the
Administration of President George H. W. Bush, he served as Ambassador for
Trade and Environmental Affairs, Deputy Under Secretary for Economic and
Agricultural Affairs, and Deputy Legal Advisor to the U.S. Department of
State. He currently serves as a member of the Brown v. Board of
Education 50th Anniversary Commission and the Trade and Environmental Policy
Committee, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of
the President.
Commissioner Gaer is the Director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the
Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee. She is a
member of the Committee Against Torture, a United Nations
treaty monitoring body that reviews governmental compliance with the
Convention Against Torture. Nominated by the United States and elected in 1999,
she is the first American to serve on the Committee. Felice Gaer was
appointed as a public member of nine U.S. delegations to UN human rights
negotiations between 1993 and 1999, including the UN Commission on Human
Rights, the World Conference on Women, and the World Conference on Human
Rights. She is also a member of the steering committee of Human Rights
Watch/Europe and Central Asia and the International Human Rights Council of the
Carter Center. Ms. Gaer is the author of more than 25 articles on
international human rights topics. In 1995, she was awarded the Alumnae
Achievement Award from Wellesley College.
Commissioner Shea is the Director of the Center for Religious Freedom of
Freedom House in Washington, D.C. She has been an international human
rights lawyer for 25 years and has for 18 years focused specifically
on the issue of religious persecution. Before her appointment to
this Commission, on which she has served from the beginning, Ms. Shea
served on the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom to the U.S. Secretary of
State. She has organized and sponsored numerous fact-finding
missions to Sudan, China, Egypt, and elsewhere and has testified regularly
before Congress about the governments of these countries. She is the author
of In the Lion's Den, a book on anti-Christian persecution around the
world. She was appointed as a public delegate on the U.S. delegation to
the UN Commission on Human Rights in 2001.
Dean Michael K. Young, Chair Felice D. Gaer, Vice Chair Nina
Shea, Vice Chair Preeta Bansal Richard Land Bishop William F.
Murphy Bishop Ricardo Ramirez Leila Nadya Sadat
Ambassador John V. Hanford III, Ex-Officio Joseph R. Crapa, Executive Director
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