An organization founded to disseminate the principles of religious liberty throughout the world, and to defend the right of all men to worship (or not to worship) as their consciences shall dictate; and incorporated to hold title to property or to receive bequests to be used to achieve the objectives of this corporation.
The association was formally incorporated Aug. 16, 1946, in the District of Columbia by
S. A. Wellman, E. W. Dunbar, and H. H. Votaw.
The IRLA board of trustees is elected at biennial sessions. Provision is made in the bylaws for an unlimited number of members, including Seventh-day Adventists and others interested in the aims of the organization. The board elects a president, vice presidents, a secretary-general, associate secretaries, and a treasurer. This association developed out of an earlier International Religious Liberty Association, organized in 1893, which in turn was a development of the National Religious Liberty Association organized in 1889. The offices were in New York City until, in March 1898, the office was moved to Chicago, Illinois, where it remained until the transfer of denominational headquarters to Washington, D.C., in 1904.
Affiliated religious liberty associations have also been organized in a number of countries, most recently in India, Romania, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Croatia.
The International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty, located in Bern, Switzerland, is a sister organization with which the IRLA closely cooperates. The latter is in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
The most visible activity of the IRLA has been the organization of world congresses in Amsterdam (1977), Rome (1984), and London (1989); and regional congresses in New Delhi (1986), Nairobi (1991), and Suva, Fiji (1993). It has also cosponsored religious liberty conferences in Parma (1988), Budapest (1992), and Moscow (1993). The first international conference regarding human rights to be held in Albania after atheistic rule was cosponsored by the IRLA and the University of Tirane in 1992.
i1 Presidents: i0 L. K. Dickson, 1952–1958; H. L. Rudy, 1958–1959; M. V. Campbell, 1960–1969; W. J. Hackett, 1969–1970; N. C. Wilson, 1971–1976; W. J. Hackett, 1976–1980; N. C. Wilson, 1980–1985; W. O. Coe, 1985–1988; C. Mau, 1988–1990; D. Lotz, 1990–1992; L. S. Ranzolin, 1992– .