A New Framework for Promoting Religious Freedom in China
Carol Lee Hamrin Tuesday, 1 March 2005
The CFIA Task Force on Religious Freedom in China:
Carol Lee Hamrin (Chair and Principal Drafter), Cindy K. Lail, and Zheng Wang
Advocates for religious freedom—and perhaps especially American advocates—need a fresh approach to their engagement of countries like China that have records of egregious abuses of human rights. Past efforts to influence such countries have often failed to improve significantly the protection of religious human rights because they have been perceived as foreign impositions, not as opportunities for mutually advantageous cooperation. Nor have prior efforts consistently been designed to fit the current social context of offending countries or to support the work of specific indigenous actors who are positioned to make the changes. Instead, religious freedom interventions have aroused official and popular suspicion of subversive political intent, eroding trust.
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