Co-Chairs of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission voice bipartisan support for the G20 Religion Forum (R20)
“I urge the Trump administration to consider formally recognizing the R20 as a permanent G20 Engagement Group. The R20 would strengthen the cause of human dignity, amplify voices committed to peace, pluralism, and freedom, help counter religious extremism, and defend persecuted minorities. For these reasons, it deserves serious consideration and support.”
~ Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Co-Chair of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Lantos Commission
“We need to do everything we can to promote religious freedom through the R20 and other methods.”
~ Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA)
Co-Chair, Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On 5 March 2026, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission convened distinguished experts on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), international peace and security, Islam, Nahdlatul Ulama, and Indonesia to “explore how the Trump administration can highlight and drive human rights issues in connection with [America’s] G20 Presidency.” The Lantos Commission — named after the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in the U.S. Congress — is a bipartisan congressional body dedicated to promoting and defending human rights globally.
As stated in the Commission’s Hearing Notice — U.S. Presidency of the G20 – An Opportunity to Champion Human Rights — the hearing’s major focus was “religious freedom, particularly the experience of Indonesia’s 2022 G20 Presidency, which incorporated an R20 International Summit of Religious Leaders as an official Main Event of Indonesia’s G20.”
The G20/R20 hearing was convened in the prestigious Armed Services Committee Hearing Room, located in Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Significantly, from the perspective of many Christians and Muslims, the hearing also happened to fall during the holy seasons of Lent and Ramadan, which are roughly coterminous this year.
First elected in 1980, and thus among the longest-serving Members of the U.S. Congress, Commission Co-Chair Chris Smith (above right, R-NJ) has been a principled voice for human rights and religious freedom worldwide for decades. His colleague, Commission Co-Chair Jim McGovern (above left, D-MA), is a self-described “Jesuit Catholic” from Worcester, Massachusetts. Their bipartisan expression of support for the G20 Religion Forum (R20) illustrates the R20’s potential to overcome partisan differences and to “help ensure that religion functions as a genuine and dynamic source of solutions, rather than problems, in the 21st century.”
The Lantos Commission hearing was convened on the heels of a November 2025 R20 Coalition Letter sent to President Donald J. Trump by His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York. Signed by a distinguished interfaith group of 84 American religious leaders and foreign policy experts, the Coalition Letter urged President Trump to officially “recognize the R20 Summit as part of America’s G20 presidency in 2026.”
As Religion News Service reported in an article published on 2 January 2026:
In the official [R20] coalition letter, the leaders wrote to Trump, “The eyes of the world will be on you and America next year, and we pray you seize this opportunity to further cement your legacy as a stalwart defender of religious liberty when America’s security and spiritual well-being were under threat.”
Congressman Chris Smith brings the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission to session (screenshot from the hearing, which was livestreamed on the Commission’s website and YouTube)
The hearing’s lead witness was Mary Ann Glendon (above), Learned Hand Professor of Law (emerita) at Harvard University; former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See; Chair of the U.S. Department of State’s Commission on Unalienable Rights; former member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF); and one of the world’s leading experts on the UDHR.
Professor Glendon’s book A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is widely regarded as the authoritative treatment of the complex process through which the newly created United Nations Organization placed human rights at the center of the post-war international order. She has participated in numerous R20 events since the organization’s founding in conjunction with Indonesia’s Presidency of the G20 in 2022, and is a key member of the R20 Board.
In her testimony, Professor Glendon observed that U.S. Government recognition of the R20 as part of America’s Presidency of the G20 would: (1) advance U.S. and international peace and security; (2) further the G20’s economic goals by amplifying religion’s proven positive contributions to economic prosperity while addressing its use as a pretext for violence; (3) accelerate religious leaders’ engagement with sensitive historical and cultural issues while positioning America as a leader in constructive interreligious dialogue; and (4) reaffirm broad support for the 1948 UDHR as a statement of fundamental principles with roots in most of the world’s major philosophical and religious traditions at a moment when the entire human rights project is in crisis.
As Professor Glendon stated in her oral testimony:
What was stunning to me [about the 2022 R20 Summit in Bali] was the outpouring of enthusiasm for the 1948 Declaration as a still-valid compendium of fundamental principles… It was stunning to me because we are currently in a moment — as the Representative from Massachusetts has mentioned — where the idea of human rights’ universality is under attack. It is being eroded from within. It is in crisis.
To showcase the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and broad agreement on it and to celebrate religious freedom — which is not only one of America’s most cherished freedoms but one of the few rights in the Universal Declaration that has been made non-derogable by international treaty — [represents an historic opportunity]. For all these reasons, I would argue that the R20, at this particular moment, would be a most valuable addition to the program of the G20.
In addition to her oral testimony, Ambassador Glendon provided the Lantos Commission with written testimony in support of her conclusions. This testimony — which will be published in the Congressional Record — may be read by clicking the image below:
The hearing’s second witness was C. Holland Taylor (photo above), Special Advisor for International Affairs to the General Chairman, Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board; co-founder of the Humanitarian Islam movement; and Deputy Chairman & CEO of the North Carolina-based Center for Shared Civilizational Values, which serves as Permanent Secretariat of the R20. Mr. Taylor’s oral testimony may be read in full below:
Good afternoon, Chairman Smith, Chairman McGovern, and Honorable Members of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
The General Chairman of the world’s largest Muslim organization, Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf, has asked me to convey his personal greetings and thanks to you for convening this important hearing.
Thank you for inviting me to appear before this Commission, to discuss how U.S. recognition of the G20 Religion Forum, or R20, offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to position human rights at the heart of the world’s political and economic agenda.
A distinguished coalition of 84 American religious leaders and foreign policy experts, representing a broad spectrum of faith traditions — including my colleague and fellow expert witness Prof. Mary Ann Glendon — wrote to President Trump in November 2025, urging him to officially “recognize the R20 Summit as part of America’s G20 presidency in 2026.”
For the past twenty-three years I have worked closely with senior leaders of the world’s largest Muslim organization, Indonesia’s 100-million-member Nahdlatul Ulama — or NU — to counter Islamist terrorism, promote human rights, and foster international peace, security, and prosperity.
In 2003, I established LibForAll Foundation with long-time NU chairman and former Indonesian president Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid, whom The Wall Street Journal described as “the single most influential religious leader in the Muslim world.”
President Wahid was the living embodiment of an ancient civilizational tradition that combined the profound moral and spiritual teachings of Islam with the wisdom of his Javanese ancestors, who preserved a pluralistic and tolerant — rather than supremacist or violent — understanding of religion following their conversion to Islam in the early 16th century.
As journalist Bret Stephens noted in an article titled “The Last King of Java,” President Wahid’s Muslim ancestors defeated the 16th-century equivalent of ISIS and reestablished freedom of religion for all Javanese. This was 200 years before similar ideas took firm political root in the West, through passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Given this history, it may come as no surprise that in 2015 Nahdlatul Ulama launched what The New York Times described as “the opening salvo in a global campaign by the world’s largest Muslim group to challenge [Islamic State] ideology head-on.”
In 2017, Gerakan Pemuda Ansor — NU’s eight-million-member young adults organization — launched the Humanitarian Islam movement, which seeks to restore rahmah — the Arabic term for universal love and compassion — to its rightful place as a primary message of Islam.
In February 2019, Nahdlatul Ulama ruled that the classical Islamic legal category of infidel, or kafir — which has long cast a shadow over the faith’s relationships with other religions — is no longer relevant as a legal concept within modern nation states. At a gathering of some 20,000 religious scholars in Banjar, West Java, Nahdlatul Ulama endorsed the concept of a nation state rather than caliphate and recognized all citizens, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or creed, as having equal rights and obligations.
The implications of these rulings for universal human rights may be glimpsed from the fact that — absent the fiqh, or legal category of infidel — there is no theological basis for Muslims to foster enmity or perpetrate acts of violence — such as jihadi terrorism — against those perceived to be non-Muslim.
On December 24th, 2021, a close disciple of Abdurrahman Wahid, Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf, was elected General Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board — a position President Wahid held from 1984 to 1999. One of Mr. Staquf’s first acts, after his election as NU Chairman, was to establish the R20 in March 2022, in conjunction with Indonesia’s G20 Presidency that year.
The Government of Indonesia incorporated the inaugural R20 Summit of International Religious Leaders into the official program of G20 Main Events and recognized the R20 as an official G20 Engagement Group — the first time that religion was ever placed on the formal G20 agenda.
In the words of Mr. Staquf:
“The purpose of the R20 is to ensure that religion functions as a genuine and dynamic source of solutions, rather than problems, in the 21st century. Through the R20, we hope to facilitate the emergence of a global movement, in which people of goodwill of every faith and nation will help bring the world’s geopolitical and economic power structures into alignment with the highest moral and spiritual values, for the sake of all humanity.”
By giving public voice to the “highest common denominator” among our shared civilizational values, the R20 strives to mobilize religious authorities and their communities — who represent over 80% of our global population — to prevent the political weaponization of identity; curtail the spread of communal hatred; promote solidarity and respect among the diverse peoples, cultures, and nations of the world; and foster the emergence of a more just and harmonious world order, founded upon respect for the equal rights and dignity of every human being.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Mr. Taylor also submitted written testimony to the Commission, which provides an in-depth description of Indonesia’s ancient traditions of religious pluralism and tolerance, as well as the precise mechanisms through which Nahdlatul Ulama’s Humanitarian Islam movement contributed to “Saudi Arabia’s historic turn away from Wahhabism, under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”
Mr. Taylor’s written testimony may be read in full by clicking the image below.
The Commission also heard from investigative journalist and anti-censorship activist Michael Shellenberger (above), who coined the phrase “Censorship-Industrial Complex” to describe government-tech collusion in speech suppression. In his written testimony Shellenberger described in detail how the G20 has been weaponized to implement a global censorship agenda, and urged the United States to use its Presidency of the G20 to enshrine a commitment to free speech within the organization.
Mr. Shellenberger’s written testimony may be read in full by clicking the image below.
The final two witnesses at the hearing were Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi, Executive Director of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers and a member of the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom, and Scott Busby, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
In his testimony, Dr. Elsanousi observed that “our national interest requires broad collaboration with the Muslim world. Demographically, the future of Islam is in Asia. I can mention that Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India hold the world’s largest Muslim population.”
Mr. Busby argued that the Trump administration has no “moral standing” to address human rights during its Presidency of the G20. In response, Congressman Smith observed that no U.S. administration has ever had a perfect record in regard to human rights, and stated that if Americans were to wait for an administration that does have a perfect human rights record, the United States would never seek to promote human rights on the world stage.
None of us are perfect, Obama wasn’t perfect, Clinton wasn’t perfect, Reagan wasn’t perfect. I served under all of them. The Bushes weren’t perfect, none of us are perfect. But [the R20] is an opportunity, I think, to tee up an idea whose time has come, led by the largest Muslim country on the face of the earth, Indonesia. And I think we ought to respect that and do our best.
Following the expert testimony, Representatives McGovern and Smith questioned several members of the panel:
Representative Smith: I’d like to ask Mary Ann Glendon if you could just speak a little bit to the issue of why this R20 would be so important right now.
Professor Glendon: Since you mentioned China, Mr. Chairman — in addition to what I said earlier about why the R20 would be good for the G20, I would like to add a couple of thoughts about security.
One would be that an R20 would help to counter China’s bid for dominance in the Indo-Pacific region. It would do so because — as has been mentioned by several people — the future of Islam, or at least the largest number of Islamic adherents in the world, is in Asia. And yet what is very little known is the transformative power and influence of the tolerant, pluralistic, religious-freedom-committed form of Islam for which Indonesia is a showcase.
Indonesia, the fourth largest country in the world, is a successful Muslim democracy that was recently named by the Templeton Harvard-Baylor Study as number one in the world for human flourishing…. So, one advantage that we haven’t discussed yet is its [potential] effect on a G20 under the Presidency of the United States, which would magnify these geopolitical advantages.
And the other [benefit] I would mention is, of course, that it would help to counter the influence of jihadist Islam by showcasing the form of Islam [embraced by] the world’s largest Muslim organization, [Nahdlatul Ulama, which has]100 million members. It is very attractive, growing, and engaged in a process of collaboration with Centrist Democrat International, which is the largest center-right political organization in the world.
These voices are potentially transformative, and the United States would have a chance to highlight them in connection with the general purposes of the G20 which, as we’ve been saying, are fostering economic security, peace, and cooperation.
In their closing remarks, the Co-Chairs of the Lantos Commission stated:
Representative McGovern: I am a man of faith, I am proud of my faith, but I also believe that while we need to do everything we can to promote religious freedom through the R20, and other methods, we need to also acknowledge that if we are consistent on human rights, we need to also protect people who do not believe, and who do not practice a particular religion….
I wear these Tibetan prayer beads. A year-and-a-half ago I went to Dharamshala, India, and met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He gave me these Tibetan prayer beads. He blessed them. He told me that it helped deal with my negativity, my worries, my concerns, and my fears. And I’m anxious to see him again to tell him that they’re not working. [Laughter].
I’ve got to say that I’m really worried about the state of human rights in the world today and I’m worried about what I fear is a lack of commitment by our country to human rights. I hope I’m proven wrong on that. But I think it’s the purpose of all of us and this Commission to make sure that we keep on raising these issues over and over and over and over again. I appreciate everybody being here, for offering your words of wisdom and your testimony. But we just have to do better. I mean, I think you know the world is counting on us. People here in this country are counting on us….
Representative Smith: You know, one of my favorite songs, maybe yours as well, is America the Beautiful. I love that phrase in it, “to mend thy every flaw.” We know we have flaws, and we have many, and our founders certainly recognized that and built in ways of reforming even the Constitution, should it be found to be inferior to what needs to be done.
So that’s what we strive to do. We all make mistakes, but this would be an opportunity, I think, this R20, to advance religious freedom and first amendment-type rights dealing with speech as never before, with a whole group of people [i.e., religious leaders] that I think will have a willing audience, among the many that will be there….
I want to thank again our distinguished panelists for your testimony, your insights. The hearing is adjourned. Thank you.
Above, Lantos Commission Co-Chair Representative McGovern in conversation with C. Holland Taylor, Professor Mary Ann Glendon, and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett. Dr. Swett is the daughter of Tom Lantos, after whom the Commission is named, and also serves as Co-Chair of the International Religious Freedom Summit. Representative McGovern is holding a copy of Proceedings of the R20 International Summit of Religious Leaders in Bali, Indonesia, which Mr. Taylor presented to him.
Members of the R20/Center for Shared Civilizational Values (CSCV) delegation (above) outside the House Judiciary Committee Hearing Room, where they met with Congressman Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) (photo below), who expressed his support for the R20 initiative.
Also pictured are Dr. Timothy Samuel Shah, CSCV’s Director of Strategic Initiatives and Secretary of the R20, who helped organize the Lantos Commission hearing; Maureen Ferguson, who serves on the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom; Nahdlatul Ulama youth activist Charles Bhagaskara Taylor (above, beige jacket); and David Shah, who is presently a sophomore at Villanova University, the alma mater of Pope Leo XIV.
The Lantos Commission hearing may be viewed below, as live-streamed from the House Armed Services Committee Hearing Room.
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