The White House has nominated John V. Hanford III to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious liberty, and appointed Michael K. Young, dean of the George Washington University Law School, as chairman of a federal commission that monitors religious freedom abroad

Christian Century, Oct 17, 2001

The White House has nominated John V. Hanford III to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious liberty, and appointed Michael K. Young, dean of the George Washington University Law School, as chairman of a federal commission that monitors religious freedom abroad. Hanford played a leading role in drafting the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which created both the U.S.

Commission on International Religious Freedom and the ambassador-at-large position. As ambassador, Hanford will make policy recommendations regarding religious freedom and oversee the religious freedom commission's annual report. The ambassador position has been vacant for a year, since the end of the two-year term of Robert Seiple, the first in that post. For more than a decade, Hanford served as a congressional fellow in international religious freedom in the office of Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana. Since the Congressional Fellows program began in 1986, Hanford has served as its executive director.