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The US Department of State held its first-ever Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom at the U.S. Department of State hosted by Secretary Pompeo in Washington D.C. from July 24-26th, 2018. Secretary General Oussama Jammal attended the Ministerial Conference representing USCMO.
The 3-day-long event hosted religious leaders, rights advocates, members of civil society, government officials and representatives of national and international organizations from around the world. Topics discussed included challenges facing religious freedoms, addressing religious discrimination and persecution and promoting respect for religious freedom for all groups. The event also featured powerful and inspiring stories from survivors of persecution based on their religious beliefs, demonstrating the importance of religious freedom as a fundamental human right.
The last day of the Ministerial was a day of action. Secretary Pompeo revealed several initiatives that will promote religious freedom and protect religious minorities in the US and abroad. Those initiatives included a new International Visitor Leadership Program, a three-day accelerator workshop called Boldline to support and scale innovative public-private partnerships that promote and defend religious freedom; and commitments from several countries who are willing to host regional follow-up conferences on the topic of religious freedom.
The Ministerial concluded with the release of the Potomac Declaration and the Potomac Plan of Action, a U.S. declaration reaffirming the ideals in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, asserting the U.S. commitment to promoting and defending religious freedom as well as recommendations on ways the community and governments can do more to protect these freedoms
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