In his first Congressional hearing since his confirmation, Ambassador Brownback testified on religious freedom in participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation. OSCE commitments on human rights and freedoms are the strongest, most comprehensive of any security organization in the world. Yet some of its participating States chronically have been among the […]

By Rachel Bauman, Policy Advisor During the annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw, I joined 21 other members of the U.S. delegation on my first visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum, the site of the former concentration and death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. The mass murder of Jews, Poles, Romani people, Soviet […]

By Nathaniel Hurd, Senior Policy Advisor From July 24-26, 2018, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hosted the first Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C. U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and former Helsinki Commission Chairman Sam Brownback coordinated the event, which brought together governments, religious leaders, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector […]

WASHINGTON—Following today’s Senate confirmation of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker (MS) issued the following statement: “I am proud to vote to confirm my friend and former colleague Governor Sam Brownback as the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Religious freedom is the first […]

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, on June 3, 1976, U.S. President Gerald Ford signed into law a bill establishing the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, more commonly known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission. I bring this 40th anniversary next week to my colleagues’ attention today because the commission has played a particularly significant role […]

WASHINGTON– The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved Tuesday the Child Protection Compact Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by U.S. Senators Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and Sam Brownback (R-KS) that would give the State Department additional tools to combat child trafficking, exploitation and enslavement. “If we are going to combat human trafficking […]

More than a century after ratification of the 13th Amendment, thousands of slaves are still transported to America each year. The International Labor Organization estimates that over 12 million people worldwide are held in bondage at any point in time, nearly 2 million of whom are child sex slaves. Modern day human traffickers have developed […]

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced the Child Protection Compact Act Thursday, a bipartisan bill that would give the State Department additional tools to combat child trafficking, exploitation and enslavement. “Children are most vulnerable to fall prey to human traffickers, which is exactly why this […]

WASHINGTON —Leaders of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) today called on governments to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz by increasing efforts to combat anti-Semitism and intolerance. “Mob attacks, murders and acts of intimidation are modern reminders that the shadow of […]

The most interesting question President Obama fielded in China came over the Internet, via the U.S. Embassy, from a Chinese citizen who asked, “Do you know of the firewall? Should we be able to use Twitter freely?” In response, Mr. Obama, speaking at a town hall in Shanghai, did not directly address China’s massive Internet […]

WASHINGTON – Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, leaders of the U.S. Helsinki Commission said Wednesday the U.S. must lead the fight against modern tools of repression and consistently raise human rights concerns. (Video and photos available). Standing in front of the largest piece of the Berlin Wall outside Germany, U.S. Senator Benjamin […]

Distinguished ambassadors, fellow members of the Commission, and honored guests, thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. This solemn and uplifting anniversary gives us all a chance to reflect on one of the clearest examples in human history of the triumph of freedom over tyranny. Since for many people, personal recollection can be […]