[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.J. Res. 89 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. J. RES. 89

Posthumously proclaiming Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov to be an honorary 
                     citizen of the United States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 24, 2002

  Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself and Mr. Frank) introduced the 
following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the 
                               Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                            JOINT RESOLUTION


 
Posthumously proclaiming Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov to be an honorary 
                     citizen of the United States.

Whereas the United States on rare occasions confers honorary citizenship on 
        individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to this country or 
        to humankind throughout the world;
Whereas honorary citizenship is and should remain an extraordinary honor not 
        lightly conferred nor frequently granted;
Whereas the late Dr. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov abandoned a privileged and 
        elevated career as a physicist in the Union of Soviet Socialist 
        Republics to protest the threat to humankind posed by the testing and 
        build-up of nuclear arms, and led the effort in his country for 
        international peace and human rights;
Whereas Dr. Sakharov, a founding member of the Moscow Human Rights Committee, 
        repeatedly spoke out in defense of victims of the Soviet system, and the 
        freedom of association, movement, information, and opinion;
Whereas in 1975 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Dr. Sakharov for his 
        personal and fearless effort in the cause of peace;
Whereas Dr. Sakharov stated that the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 has ``meaning 
        only if [the Helsinki Accords] are observed fully and by all parties. No 
        country should evade a discussion on its own domestic problems [n]or 
        should a country ignore violations in other participating states. The 
        whole point of the Helsinki Accords is mutual monitoring, not mutual 
        evasion of difficult problems.'';
Whereas for his human rights activity, and specifically for protesting the 
        Soviet invasion into Afghanistan, Dr. Sakharov was sent on January 22, 
        1980, into internal exile in the closed city of Gorky;
Whereas at the direction of the Congress, President Ronald Reagan designated May 
        21, 1983, as ``National Andrei Sakharov Day'' and praised Dr. Sakharov's 
        tireless and courageous efforts on behalf of international peace and on 
        behalf of human freedoms for the peoples of the Soviet Union; and
Whereas upon his release from internal exile on December 16, 1986, by Soviet 
        leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Dr. Sakharov continued the fight for human 
        rights in the Soviet Union, was elected to the Congress of People's 
        Deputies, and remained a vigorous advocate for individual human rights 
        until the time of his death in 1989: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That Andrei Dmitrievich 
Sakharov is posthumously proclaimed to be an honorary citizen of the 
United States.
                                 <all>