Human Rights

A conservative Catholic group is making an issue out of the almost 18 months it took President Obama to pick an ambassador for international religious freedom after his inauguration.

In a “Religious Freedom” scorecard unveiled Friday, The Catholic Association gives Obama an “F” on seven religious issues, including support for religious liberty around the world. Republican challenger Mitt Romney gets “A+”s across the board, notably for vowing to “stand up and protect religious freedom wherever it is threatened.”

The group's main focus is the healthcare law's contraception mandate, but the lengthy time it took the president to nominate the country's top advocate for religious rights across the world has long been a sore point for conservatives. Obama finally nominated Suzan Johnson Cook, the president of the Hampton Ministers Conference, in June 2010.

House Republicans blasted President Obama on Tuesday for issuing an executive order aimed at eradicating trafficking by federal contractors or subcontractors, arguing that it's a sign that Obama would rather politicize the issue rather than work with Congress on more effective legislation.

Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Obama's decision to issue an executive order similar to his bill, the End Human Trafficking in Government Contracting Act, would undermine his bipartisan bill that has been the subject of months of work in Congress.

Leaders from both parties came together to present Suu Kyi with the Congressional Gold Medal – Congress's highest civilain honor.

Italy’s highest criminal court has upheld the conviction of 23 Americans tried in absentia for the CIA’s program of extraordinary rendition, The Associated Press reports.

The ruling on the appealed case marks the end of a three and a half year trial that is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. 

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Congress returns for one final week with a busy agenda.

The highlight of the day comes when House and Senate leaders honor Burma's opposition leader and Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, with the Congressional Gold Medal at the Capitol Rotunda. Former first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be on hand for the celebration.

Also on the Hill: Sen. John Kerry's (D-Mass.) Foreign Relations Committee kicks things off this morning with a nomination hearing for Robert Stephen Beecroft, President Obama's pick to be ambassador to Iraq. Beecroft was picked last week after Obama's first choice, Brett McGurk, imploded over a sex scandal.

The committee reconvenes in the afternoon with one last business meeting to clear no fewer than 10 pending bills and resolutions, including an Africa trade bill (S. 2215) that seeks to increase exports of U.S. goods and services to Africa by 200 percent over a decade. The panel will also clear the nominations of ambassadors to Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Mauritius, Burundi and Poland.

Also, the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Africa subcommittee holds a hearing in the morning on Rwanda's involvement in the insurgency racking next-door Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

Bangladesh is probing accusations that an alleged war criminal used “money laundering and other illegal activities” to pay the U.S. firm Cassidy to lobby lawmakers and the Obama administration on his behalf, according to reports from pro-government media.

Mir Quasem Ali is a leader of an Islamist opposition party and a media owner who's accused of drawing up kill lists of intellectual leaders during Bangladesh's war for independence with Pakistan. He was arrested June 17 by the Bangladesh International War Crimes Tribunal, which was set up by the ruling Awami League two years ago to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes during the 1971 war.

Cassidy's vice chairman, Gregg Hartley, said media reports that Ali paid the firm $25 million were false and part of a pattern of intimidating government critics. He said the firm broke no U.S. laws in taking on Ali and later his brother, Mir Masum Ali, as clients. Mir Masum Ali is a U.S. citizen who got involved after his brother's assets were frozen.

“The sensational stories reported in the Bangladesh media are not based in fact and look like an effort to discourage international advocates, like Cassidy, from helping to inform and provide factual information to world leaders and in particular U.S. foreign-policy makers,” Hartley told The Hill in a statement.

The Senate unanimously adopted a resolution Thursday night condemning the crimes against humanity committed by Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda.

“Kony and the LRA have terrorized Uganda and its neighbors in central Africa for more than two decades, tearing families apart and destroying communities,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), the lead sponsor of the resolution. “Joseph Kony represents the worst of mankind, and he and his commanders must be held accountable for their war crimes.”

Before meeting with House leaders, Chen Guangcheng told reporters that "change in China is inevitable.”

Clinton said there was "no place in our politics" for such "assaults" and praised Republicans who criticized the allegations.

“The overall human rights situation in China continues to deteriorate,” the State Department's top human rights official told reporters Wednesday after two days of meetings in Washington with his Chinese counterparts.

Michael Posner, the assistant secretary of state for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, issued the remarks at the end of the United States' annual dialogue with China. The dialogue is aimed at raising concerns with the Chinese leadership, but is not a negotiation.

“Over the last two days, we’ve focused on a number of cases where lawyers, bloggers, NGO activists, journalists, religious leaders, and others are asserting universal rights and calling for peaceful reform in China,” Posner said. “A number of these individuals have been arrested and detained as part of a larger pattern of arrest and extralegal detention of those who challenge official actions and policies in China.” Read more...