[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 588 Introduced in House (IH)]
106th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 588
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives with respect to
violations in Western Europe of provisions of the Helsinki Final Act
and other international agreements relating to the freedom of
individuals to profess and practice religion or belief.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 21, 2000
Mr. Salmon (for himself, Mr. Payne, and Mr. Gilman) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on
International Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives with respect to
violations in Western Europe of provisions of the Helsinki Final Act
and other international agreements relating to the freedom of
individuals to profess and practice religion or belief.
Whereas under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
``Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and
freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or
private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance'';
Whereas under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, ``No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his
freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of his choice'';
Whereas the Participating States of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), have undertaken a series of specific
commitments designed to ensure the freedom of the individual to profess
and practice religion or belief, including a commitment by those States
to ensure the full and effective exercise of the freedom of thought,
conscience, religion, or belief, in their laws and regulations;
Whereas Principle VII of the Helsinki Final Act commits the OSCE Participating
States to ``recognize and respect the freedom of the individual to
profess and practice, alone or in community with others, religion or
belief acting in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience'';
Whereas the 1989 Vienna Concluding Document commits the OSCE Participating
States to ``take effective measures to prevent and eliminate
discrimination against individuals or communities on the grounds of
religion or belief in the recognition, exercise and enjoyment of human
rights and fundamental freedoms in all fields of civil, political,
economic, social and cultural life'';
Whereas in the 1991 Moscow Document, the OSCE Participating States
``categorically and irrevocably declare that the commitments undertaken
in the field of the human dimension . . . are matters of direct and
legitimate concern to all participating States and do not belong
exclusively to the internal affairs of the State concerned'';
Whereas freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief is inextricably
linked to the exercise of other rights, including the right to freedom
of peaceful assembly and association, the right to freedom of
association with others, and the right to freedom of expression, and the
recognition that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled
without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law, including
in employment;
Whereas the Department of State's annual reports on religious freedom and human
rights have documented numerous instances of government discrimination
based on religion or belief in Western Europe, including discriminatory
acts against American members of several different religious
denominations and beliefs;
Whereas the Office of the United States Trade Representative has listed Germany
as a country engaged in discriminatory trade practices because of ``sect
filter'' guidelines issued to all federal government ministries and used
by German state and local governments, which have the potential to
discriminate against United States firms in German procurement decisions
by permitting government entities to reject bids and immediately
terminate contracts if a firm does not sign a ``sect filter'' document
attesting that the firm and its employees are not affiliated with
certain religious beliefs;
Whereas a bill passed by the French National Assembly on June 22, 2000, contains
repressive measures which would have a chilling effect on the freedom
religion and belief, including the dissolution of targeted religious
associations, the imprisonment of members of such groups, and
infringement upon freedom of speech, including speech intended to
persuade another person to a particular point of view, whether
philosophical or religious;
Whereas a 1996 French National Assembly report listed 173 organizations as
suspect, including independent evangelical Christian churches,
Scientologists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Unificationists and this report
has been used by both private and official entities to harass,
intimidate, deny employment, and deny commercial loans to listed groups,
and members of other religious groups, such as Southern Baptists,
Seventh Day Adventists, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement, Opus
Dei, and the Society of Jesus, have also been subject to recent
discrimination and harassment at the hands of the French Government;
Whereas the Parliament of Austria passed a law in 1997 which codified a tiered
system of government recognition and preferential treatment, including
government funding of religious groups, and which requires religious
groups seeking recognition to undergo government surveillance for at
least 10, or up to 20, years to prove legitimacy to government
officials;
Whereas the Austrian law on religion is cited as justification for more
repressive laws being proposed in nascent democracies further east, such
as Hungary and Romania and has been cited by Russian officials as
justification for an oppressive 1997 Russian religion law;
Whereas the Government of Austria has instituted a ``sect'' office which
disseminates official propaganda on religious groups not recognized by
the government and leading to a chilling effect on religious liberty;
Whereas the Parliament of Belgium issued a report in 1997 on ``sects'' with a
widely circulated informal appendix listing 189 groups as suspect,
including many Protestant and Catholic groups, Quakers, Hasidic Jews,
Buddhists, and members of the Young Women's Christian Association
(YWCA), based on rumor and speculation found in police files, and
implicitly warning the public to avoid such ``dangerous'' groups;
Whereas the Parliament of Belgium has established a government ``Advice and
Information Center on Sects'' which disseminates official views on
groups considered ``sects'' as defined by the list in the appendix to
the 1997 Belgian Parliament report;
Whereas some evangelical and charismatic Christian churches have been targeted
in parliamentary investigations in France, Belgium, and Germany;
Whereas Jehovah's Witnesses have been subjected in France to various forms of
harassment, including the denial of the freedom to assemble for worship
in facilities permitted to be used by other faiths and are the targets
of governmental tax audits and punitive tax assessments, continue to
suffer religious discrimination and the economic consequences of being
categorized as a ``dangerous sect'' by France's Parliamentary Commission
on Sects, have been informed by German tax authorities that the long-
standing exemption from property taxation for their houses of worship
may be canceled in the near future, have been labeled a ``hard core
sect'' in Belgium by some educators, continue to suffer from employment
discrimination in Austria, France, and Germany, and are discriminated
against in foster parent proceedings in Germany and in child custody
matters in Belgium;
Whereas Muslims have been subjected to harassment, including police brutality
and attacks by extremist groups, particularly in Germany and France, and
Muslim women are subject to frequent discrimination and other forms of
abuse and harassment because they wear a head covering;
Whereas adherents to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been
subject to continued acts of harassment, including confiscation of
religious materials, and are prevented from freely sharing their beliefs
in several OSCE Participating States;
Whereas Scientologists have been subject to pervasive civil, political, and
economic discrimination, harassment, surveillance, and orchestrated
boycotts in Germany, France, Belgium, and Austria; and
Whereas these actions by Western European governments have contributed to
intolerance by public and private actors who have discriminated in
hiring practices or terminated employment based on an individual's
religious affiliation: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) disapproves of the growing intolerance, discrimination, and
violence directed against individuals and groups because of their
religion or belief, in violation of the Helsinki Final Act and other
international agreements;
(2) expresses grave concern about the adoption of laws and
regulations by Participating States of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that--
(A) discriminate against minority or so-called
``nontraditional'' religions or beliefs; and
(B) limit the freedom of individuals to profess and practice
religion or belief, including laws restricting religious speech
and assembly; and
(3) calls upon the President and the Ambassador at Large for
International Religious Freedom to--
(A) raise violations of the freedom of thought, conscience,
religion, or belief, at every appropriate level with
representatives of countries that have failed to implement their
international commitments and obligations in this regard;
(B) ensure that the United States makes full use of existing
meetings and structures of international organizations,
including meetings of the OSCE Permanent Council as well as
periodic implementation review meetings on human dimension
issues, to raise violations of Participating States' freely
undertaken international commitments both to protect and to
provide for the full and effective exercise of the freedom of
thought, conscience, religion, or belief under their respective
jurisdictions; and
(C) support the inclusion of experts on religious liberty on
United States delegations to appropriate meetings of
international organizations, including the OSCE.
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