Virtual Event: Advancing Religious Freedom in U.S. Foreign Policy and Foreign Assistance

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

2:00 PM - 3:15 PM

Over the last four years, the United States has continued to push forward the more than 20-year legacy of International Religious Freedom policy. U.S. leadership has helped to galvanize an international coalition to advance this fundamental human right in the IRFB Alliance of more than 30 countries, through the annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, engagement with the growing network of civil society-led International Religious Freedom roundtables, and multilateral engagement at the United Nations and other fora.

With Executive Order 13926, IRF policy, as established by the International Religious Freedom Act (1998) and expanded with the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (2016), was given additional resources and an increased priority requiring religious freedom to be strategically integrated by the State Department into foreign policy and by USAID into foreign assistance.

To discuss the opportunities for implementation of that executive order and its importance, RFI President Tom Farr, founding director of the Office of International Religious Freedom, will host a conversation with Sam Brownback, Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom at the Department of State, and Samah Norquist, Chief Advisor for International Religious Freedom at U.S. Agency for International Development, and discussant Chris Seiple, Principal Advisor, Templeton Religion Trust.

https://www.religiousfreedominstitute.org/rfievents/virtual-event-advancing-religious-freedom-in-us-foreign-policy-and-foreign-assistance-policy-and-practice