One purpose: build the missing infrastructure
Three federal mandates now govern religious-freedom compliance in the American workplace, classroom, and supply chain — and each presupposes research infrastructure that no U.S. institution currently provides. The Institute exists to build it: consolidated jurisprudence, adoptable governance instruments, and verified data, published for everyone under the Founding Commitments.
Founder & Executive Director
Juan Mario Jiménez Arbeláez is an attorney (Colombia) and holds an LL.M. in International Legal Studies with a specialization in Human Rights from American University Washington College of Law. His work spans apex-court constitutional jurisprudence, international religious-freedom policy, and the documentation of violations of freedom of religion or belief.
The Institute's methodology draws directly on this record: constitutional synthesis practiced at a high court, documentation standards learned in the field, and coordination of multi-stakeholder religious-freedom initiatives in Washington.
- Constitutional Court of Colombia — service in the chambers of a sitting Justice, contributing to full-court constitutional jurisprudence
- International Religious Freedom Roundtable — Co-Chair, Latin America Working Group, coordinating joint civil-society initiatives
- IRF Secretariat — authorized internship and published analysis on international religious-freedom policy
- Municipal religious-freedom analysis, Medellín (2019) — an executed, small-scale prototype of the Institute's national methodology
- Founder of two U.S. companies — organizational formation, funding, and employment experience in the United States
- Training — International Protocol on Documenting Violations of Religious Freedom
A phased build
The Institute develops in disciplined phases, publishing as it builds.
Foundation · 2026–2027
Platform launch; foundational research notes and methodology papers; the fifty-state survey; initial research partnerships; first policy-dialogue convenings to field-test the published protocol.
Expansion · 2028
Expanded Lab coverage and research output; Monitor country volumes on the annual calendar; national academic and policy workshops; growing adoption of the Model Policy Library.
Consolidation · 2029–2030
Full CPC-taxonomy Monitor coverage; the Lab's research interface in general availability; the Institute established as standing public infrastructure for religious-freedom compliance.
Always
The Founding Commitments apply at every phase: standardized outputs, an open core, uniform terms, and no commissioned work.