Weill Cornell Medicine anesthesiologist Dr. Gunisha Kaur, B.S. ’06, M.D. ’10, has been appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan legislative branch agency that globally monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer appointed her to the position, which carries a two-year term. USCIRF was created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act and comprises nine commissioners, supported by a non-partisan professional staff. Three commissioners are appointed by the President of the United States, three by U.S. Senate leadership, and three by leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Senator Schumer recommended Dr. Kaur – in part – because she has “extensive experience in human rights and community leadership,” he said in a statement. “I am confident that she will bring her deep medical, academic, research, religious and leadership expertise to her service on the Commission.”
Dr. Kaur is an associate professor of anesthesiology, director of the Anesthesiology Global Health Initiative and Human Rights Impact Lab at Weill Cornell Medicine, and the Salvatore Family Medical Director of the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights (WCCHR).
Her research on migrants, refugees and asylum seekers provides the bridge between her Weill Cornell work and USCIRF’s mission. Dr. Kaur, who is the first Sikh leader to serve on the commission, said her experiences and leadership in clinical care and research help give her a real-world understanding of global human rights violations, persecution and violence.
“Cornell has been incredibly supportive of this work in a way that is really meaningful,” Dr. Kaur said, noting that these efforts span both Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell’s Ithaca campus. “What we do is very academically rigorous and quite unique. We have been advocating for vulnerable populations and the care of those populations for more than a decade.”
WCCHR launched in 2010, the year Dr. Kaur graduated from Weill Cornell Medicine. The WCCHR was founded in collaboration with Physicians for Human Rights, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning nonprofit that leverages medical and scientific expertise to document and combat global human rights violations.
“What’s really interesting about the work at the WCCHR and the Human Rights Impact Lab is that it's both rigorously academic and tangibly human. It has quantitative characteristics when we're looking at data and trends, but is also rooted in qualitative information, because we are looking at patients’ stories, understanding their life experiences, and the whole picture of who they are in the context of their well-being,” she said.
The commission monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad; makes policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state, and Congress; and tracks the implementation of these recommendations.
In practice, this includes advising Congress on matters relating to religious freedom abroad. USCIRF issues publications, holds hearings and public events, hosts a podcast, and pens opinion and editorial articles in various publications. For example, USCIRF releases an annual report detailing foreign countries that violate religious freedom, among other topics. USCIRF also meets regularly with government officials within the executive branch to raise its policy recommendations to advance freedom of religion or belief abroad.
“I'm honored that Senate Minority Leader Schumer appointed me to this commission. I think the work is critically important,” Dr. Kaur said.
Dr. Kaur joins other newly appointed commissioners Rachel Laser, a lawyer and advocate who is also the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State; Asif Mahmood, a practicing physician, human rights activist, interracial and inter-faith community organizer; Gene Mills, a religious leader and president of the Louisiana Family Forum; and philanthropist and human rights attorney CeCe Heil, who is senior counsel and international legal director for the American Center for Law and Justice. The remaining commissioners have yet to be announced.
The comments of Gunisha Kaur included in this article are her own views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the commission.
