The Rumi Forum presented “Last report on International Religious Freedom (Released in May 2009)” with Knox Thames, Director of Policy and Research at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
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Knox Thames gave an overview of the Commission (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom) and the findings in the International Religious Freedom Report that they released earlier this month.
Knox Thames joined the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in February 2009 as the Director of Policy and Research. Before coming to the Commission, he worked in the Office of International Religious Freedom at the U.S. Department of State, and was the lead State Department officer on religious freedom issues in multilateral fora, such as the UN and OSCE. Mr. Thames also served as Counsel for six years at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Commission), where he was the point-person on religious freedom matters and on issues s involving refugees and internally displaced persons. An author of numerous articles on a range of human rights issues, in 2004, Mr. Thames was appointed by the State Department to serve as one of the two U.S. experts on the OSCE Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Mr. Thames earned a J.D. with honors from the American University Washington College of Law. He also holds a Master’s in International Affairs from the American University School of International Service. His book “International Religious Freedom Advocacy” will come out on July 1 by Baylor University Press.
Moderator :
Since its founding in 1999, Joseph K. Grieboski has transformed the Institute on Religion and Public Policy into a well-respected global authority on the role of religious freedom in society and politics, culminating in its 2007 and 2008 nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Grieboski’s guiding principle for the Institute is that religious freedom is not simply a church-state issue, but involves the engagement of every segment of society to secure freedom of belief for each person. As a religious freedom and human rights expert, he has testified before the United States Congress, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and many other legislative and international bodies.