IRF Secretariat is an international non-governmental organization.

• It exists to serve all faith communities, civil society organizations, parliamentarians, and governments that are working to promote, advance, and secure freedom of thought, conscience, and religion;

• By providing effective strategic and administrative support, it empowers the institutionalization and sustainability of the global movement; and

• It is organized and operated exclusively for tax-exempt charitable and educational purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.

1. To convene the IRF Roundtable in Washington.

2. To lead the way to the achievement of long-term impact and better outcomes by conceptualizing and institutionalizing a new approach centered on cooperative engagement through the following activities:

1. Convening Global Events. Global, regional, and national summits and conferences convene and expand the global movement. These events include training and certificate programs that equip citizens and government officials to engage each other cooperatively and constructively.

2. Catalyzing Cooperative Engagement & Communication through a Growing Global Infrastructure. The events catalyze the establishment of regional secretariats that can then start and support religious freedom roundtables (at the national and local levels), bring faith/belief communities and other civil society partners and sectors into the movement, and develop and/or strengthen a builder’s mentality and structure in each region. This expanding global network serves as a sustainable infrastructure for cooperative engagement and communication across deep religious differences and a variety of multi-faith actions that not only advocate and build religious freedom but mutual respect, trust, and reliance.

3. Coordinating Collaborative, Multi-Faith, Multi-Network, Multi-Sector Actions to Increase Impact. Goal setting and strategic planning provide a coherent set of targets and objectives that enable coordination of actions across the “bottom up” of civil society sectors and the “top down” networks of governments to increase impact.

1. Multi-Faith, Inclusive, Equal Citizenship

2. Religious Freedom + Responsibility.

3. Good Citizenship & Governance.

We provide multi-faith, inclusive, equal citizenship events, platforms, and “on ramps”—such as Roundtables in the public square—and deliver value-added leadership services that educate, equip, and empower all communities to engage each other across their deepest differences, learn from each other, and start working together.

We help all faith/belief communities take responsibility for each other by respecting the human dignity of each individual, including those of other faiths and beliefs, and protecting their freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; and for society by engaging governments cooperatively and constructively, in multi-faith fashion, and offering to work with them to solve social problems.

We facilitate better citizenship & governance by forging consultative relationships and strategic partnerships between all faith/belief communities (majority and minority, traditional and new) and governments; and by helping them work with each other (in practice) on a regular and ongoing basis to improve public policies.

• Religious freedom is a key to sustainable peace and prosperity. It is a universal value, strongly affirmed in international norms and law as an issue of justice and protection of minorities. Advancing it should be a national and international security imperative for all countries and regions.

• Religious freedom strengthens cultures and provides the foundation for stable democracies and their components, including civil society, economic development and growth, and social harmony. As such, it is also an effective counter-terrorism weapon as it pre-emptively undermines divisiveness, polarization, radical ideologies, religious extremism, conflict, and violence.

• History and modern scholarship make it clear that where people are allowed to practice their faith freely, participate in the public square, and love and help “the other,” they are more likely to be good citizens and less likely to be alienated from each other and the government. Such conclusions are increasingly bolstered by empirical research:

• Dr. Brian Grim, a noted expert on society and religion, has found a strong correlation between government restrictions on religion and religiously-motivated violence.[1]

• Further, an exhaustive 2011 study by academics from Harvard, Notre Dame and Georgetown found “that religious communities are most likely to support democracy, peace and freedom for other faiths, and least likely to take up the gun or form dictatorships, when governments allow them freedom to worship, practice and express their faiths freely and when religious communities in turn renounce their claims to permanent offices or positions of policy-making authority.”[2]

• Finally, a Religious Freedom and Business Foundation study examines and finds a positive relationship between religious freedom and ten of the twelve pillars of global competitiveness, as measured by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index. The study, however, goes beyond simple correlations by empirically testing and finding the tandem effects of government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion (as measured by the Pew Research Center) to be detrimental to economic growth while controlling for 23 other theoretical, economic, political, social, and demographic factors.[3]

• A multi-faith Roundtable is a means to bring faith communities together to discuss and inform policy and coordinate actions to build social cohesion, discredit radical ideologies and extremism, strengthen security and stability, enable economic development and empowerment, and foster sustainable peace and prosperity.

• A multi-faith Roundtable would empower a country’s efforts to initiate dialogue at all levels for the purpose of achieving greater unity and solidarity, and promoting goodwill, neighboring cooperation, and peaceful co-existence amongst its people. This will promote security, democratic principles, and popular participation of citizens in the pursuit of good governance, which will strengthen the capacity to coordinate development programs in the areas of peace building and all aspects of social and economic life.

• Ideally, all majority and minority religions will work together and coordinate with the government on policy matters related to peace, security, and good governance.

Cooperative Engagement respects the other’s human dignity and protects the liberty of conscience of every individual.

IRF Secretariat helps all faith/belief communities engage each other cooperatively and constructively across their deepest differences; and engage their governments cooperatively and constructively, in multi-faith fashion.

We are builders who offer a proven Cooperative Engagement approach that effectively builds multi-faith relationships on mutual respect, trust, and reliance—and even love. And when everyone pulls together, they build freedom of thought, conscience, and religion—and so much more—from the ground up.

This work builds and strengthens:

• Social cohesion & civil society.
• Stability & security.
• Economic development & growth.
• Flourishing communities.
• Peace & prosperity (the ultimate goal).

[1] Brian Grim, “The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century.” (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

[2] Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott and Timothy Samuel Shah, “God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics.” (New York: Norton, 2011), p. 18.

[3] https://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/religious-freedom-business