Registration for the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit 2022 has opened, the organization announced Tuesday.
The Summit will take place June 28-30 and bring together religious freedom leaders, advocates and activists from around the world in Washington, D.C.
“In countries around the world, we continue to see severe restrictions placed on the free exercise of religion, conscience and belief,” said summit co-chair Lantos Swett. “These freedoms constitute fundamental human rights, and we know that they are absolutely vital to building peaceful and just societies.
“The IRF Summit offers a unique example of how people with different perspectives and opinions can nonetheless work in close partnership and collaboration to bring about real progress and change.”
Swett is president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice. The summit is co-chaired by Former US Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback.
Speakers are expected to include former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; co-founder of the global Humanitarian Islam movement K.H. Yahya Cholil Staquf; and Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University and a former US Ambassador to the Holy See, among many others.
The first IRF summit took place last year and brought together more than 1,100 people, including survivors of discrimination and persecution based on religion or belief. The event highlighted the genocide being committed against the Uyghurs, the ongoing persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt and Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan, the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and many other groups.
“The inaugural IRF Summit demonstrated the power of uniting people from different backgrounds and faiths in the common cause of advocating for greater religious freedom globally,” said Brownback. “In the year since we last met, the challenges to freedom of religion and belief have deepened, but so have the bonds among the diverse members of our IRF coalition.
“This year’s Summit will be an opportunity to take stock of the challenges, discuss innovative solutions and together make commitments that will march us toward our shared goal of religious freedom for everyone, everywhere, at all times,” he concluded.