Since the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 was adopted, the U.S. government has paid more attention to human rights violations committed against members of religious minorities in hot spots throughout the world. Implementing this policy has encountered both resistance and assistance from traditional diplomats, foreign governments, and NGO representatives. In this lecture, Felice Gaer, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, will discuss what has been accomplished and what is needed to bolster this vital human rights concern.

Felice Gaer is the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights. For more than 40 years, the institute has worked to advance human rights worldwide.

She is currently the chair of the Leo Nevas Task Force on Human Rights of the United Nations Association of the USA; vice chair of the U.N. Committee against Torture (the first American to serve as an independent expert on that treaty monitoring body); and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

She has served more than a decade on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, including three terms as chair.

Gaer is the author of more than 40 articles on international human rights. She has been active in ensuring that women’s rights are addressed as human rights, and that violence against women, including rape, has been addressed effectively by UN human rights bodies.

Co-sponsored by the Harris Center for Judaic Studies