[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3145 Introduced in House (IH)]
107th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3145
To promote greater cooperation between the United States and its
European allies toward religious tolerance and to require the
imposition of punitive measures with respect to entities that
discriminate against individuals or groups on the basis of religion or
belief.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 16, 2001
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen (for herself and Mr. Gilman) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations,
and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, and Ways and Means,
for a period subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To promote greater cooperation between the United States and its
European allies toward religious tolerance and to require the
imposition of punitive measures with respect to entities that
discriminate against individuals or groups on the basis of religion or
belief.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Trans-Atlantic Religious Protection
Act (TARPA) of 2001''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
states that ``[e]veryone 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''.
(2) Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights states that ``[n]o one shall be subject to
coercion which would impair his freedom to have or adopt a
religion or belief of his choice''.
(3) The member countries 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 countries to ensure the full
and effective exercise of the freedom of thought, conscience,
religion, or belief, in their laws and regulations.
(4) Principle VII of the Helsinki Final Act commits the
OSCE member countries 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''.
(5) The 1989 Vienna Concluding Document commits the OSCE
member countries 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''.
(6) In the 1991 Moscow Document, the OSCE member countries
``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''.
(7) 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.
(8) The United States Department of State's annual reports
on religious freedom and human rights have documented numerous
instances of government discrimination in Western Europe based
on religion or belief, including discriminatory acts against
American members of several different religious denominations
and beliefs.
(9) Both the Office of the United States Trade
Representative and the Department of State have objected to the
use of discriminatory procurement practices by German Federal,
state and local governmental agencies and private entities
which have the potential to discriminate against United States
firms in procurement decisions by permitting agencies and firms
to reject bids and terminate contracts with firms that do not
attest that the firm and its employees are not affiliated with
certain religious beliefs.
(10) In France, Federal and local governmental agencies, as
well as private businesses responding to French Government
actions, have terminated contracts with a United States-owned
software firm solely because of the religious beliefs of the
firm's founder.
(11) A law enacted by the French Parliament on May 30,
2001, 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.
(12) His Holiness Pope John Paul II has spoken out against
the new French law as potentially devastating. While formally
accepting the credentials of the new French Ambassador to the
Holy See, the Pope reminded the ambassador that ``religious
liberty in the full sense of the term, is the first human right
. . . [t]his means a liberty which is not reduced to the
private sphere only . . . [t]o discriminate [against] religious
beliefs, or to discredit one or another form of religious
practices is a form of exclusion contrary to the respect of
fundamental human values and will eventually destabilize
society, where a pluralism of thought and action should exist,
as well as a benevolent and brotherly attitude . . .
[t]his will necessarily create a climate of tension, intolerance,
opposition and suspect, not conducive to social peace''.
(13) United States Department of State officials testifying
on the new French law before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee on May 1, 2001, and the House Committee on
International Relations on July 11, 2001, underscored that
``[t]he United States is concerned that such policies are
becoming institutionalized in some parts of Europe and are
having the effect of appearing to justify restrictive laws
elsewhere such as Russia, Central Asia, and even China''.
(14) 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.
(15) The Parliament of Austria passed a law in 1997 which
codified a tiered system of government recognition and
preferential treatment 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.
(16) 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.
(17) 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.
(18) 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.
(19) The Parliament of Belgium has established a government
Center for Information and Advice on Harmful Sectarian
Organizations which disseminates official views on groups
considered ``sects'' as defined by the list in the appendix to
the 1997 Belgian Parliament report.
(20) On April 29, 1998, the Italian Ministry of Internal
Affairs sent a report to the lower house of the Italian
Parliament entitled ``Cults and New Magical Movements in
Italy''. This report mentions that the Ministry of Internal
Affairs monitors 137 groups--76 of which are categorized as
``new religions'' and 61 as ``new magical movements''. This
report, according to Dr. Massimo Introvigne of CESNUR in Italy,
notes that ``the real danger is that, because of the media
event created around the report, respectable and law-abiding
citizens who happen to be members of movements mentioned, but
explicitly exonerated from any charge in the report may be
discriminated against or maligned''.
(21) Some evangelical and charismatic Christian churches
have been targeted in parliamentary investigations in France,
Belgium, and Germany.
(22) Jehovah's Witnesses have been subjected in France to
various forms of harassment, have been informed by German state
tax authorities that the long-standing exemption from property
taxation for their houses of worship may be canceled in the
near future, continue to suffer from employment discrimination
in Austria, France, and Germany, and have been discriminated
against in foster parent proceedings in Germany and in some
child custody matters in Belgium.
(23) 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.
(24) 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
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
member countries.
(25) Members of the Church of Scientology have been subject
to pervasive civil, political, and economic discrimination,
harassment, surveillance, and orchestrated boycotts in Germany,
France, Belgium, and Austria.
(26) The Law of Sects in Spain, passed in 1989, authorizes
the police to investigate ``sects'' with a ``destructive''
character. As a result, a special unit was created within the
police to investigate these allegedly dangerous sects.
(27) The Government of the Canary Islands, one of Spain's
17 regions, has refused to grant permission to the Salvation
Army to open a center for needy children on the grounds that
the Salvation Army is categorized as a ``destructive sect''.
(28) 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.
(29) The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the
United States have intensified fears of infringement and
violations of religious freedom, with experts cautioning
against the use of the antiterrorism effort as an excuse for arbitrary
abuses and proliferation of anti-sect laws and lists such as those used
by European countries to monitor or restrict particular religious
groups.
SEC. 3. DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS.
(a) General Efforts.--The President and the Secretary of State--
(1) shall raise violations of freedom of thought,
conscience, religion, or belief at every appropriate level with
representatives of European countries that have failed to
implement their international commitments and obligations in
this regard;
(2) shall make full use of existing meetings and structures
of international organizations and multilateral fora to raise
violations by Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) member countries of 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
(3) to the maximum extent practicable, shall appoint
experts on religious liberty to United States delegations to
appropriate meetings of international organizations.
(b) United States-EU Inter-Parliamentary Meetings.--United States
representatives to the United States-European Union Inter-Parliamentary
meetings, should raise at such meetings the issue of laws, regulations,
and other practices in the members countries which infringe upon
freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief and take concrete
steps to address these violations.
SEC. 4. ACTIONS BY DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
(a) Diversity and Tolerance Exchanges.--The Secretary of State,
through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Exchange, shall promote
educational and cultural workshops and forums among academics,
religious leaders, and human rights organizations in the United States
and their European counterparts in an effort to promote a better
understanding of religious and philosophical diversity and a tolerant
society.
(b) Human Rights Monitors.--The Secretary of State, through the
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and the Bureau of
Diplomatic and Consular Affairs, shall train United States human rights
monitors stationed at European posts to identify, investigate, and
monitor persecution and discrimination on the basis of religion or
belief.
(c) Denial of Visas.--The Secretary of State may not issue a visa
to, and the Attorney General shall exclude from the United States, any
alien who the Secretary of State determines is a high-ranking official
of the government of a country, or a commercial or other entity of a
government, which is in violation of international obligations to
guarantee and ensure the full and effective exercise of freedom of
thought, conscience, religion, or belief.
(d) Travel Advisories.--The Secretary of State shall issue travel
advisories on countries which discriminate on the basis of religion or
belief advising Americans of the potential dangers faced by individuals
who are members of targeted groups.
SEC. 5. ACTIONS BY UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE.
The President shall, in accordance with section 301(a)(1) of the
Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2411(a)(1)), direct the United States
Trade Representative--
(1) to take all appropriate action authorized under section
301(c) of such Act against each European country the government
of which engages in or tolerates violations of religious
freedom (as determined under section 401 of the International
Religious Freedom Act of 1998), including the imposition of
duties or other import restrictions on goods of such country
that are similar to the goods of a United States individual or
United States business (or its subsidiary) that is subject to
such violations of religious freedom; and
(2) to initiate appropriate action at the World Trade
Organization against each European country described in
paragraph (1).
SEC. 6. ACTIONS BY DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.
The President shall direct the Secretary of Commerce--
(1) to incorporate into the programs and assistance of the
International Trade Administration guidelines and warnings
regarding the discriminatory practices of European countries
against United States products or businesses (and their
subsidiaries) on the basis of religion or belief; and
(2) to make it a priority to advocate on behalf of United
States businesses being discriminated against by European
countries on the basis of religion or belief to ensure full
market access and achieve full compliance by such countries
with international trade agreements and accords entered into
with the United States.
SEC. 7. PRESIDENTIAL WAIVER.
(a) Waiver.--Subject to subsection (b), the President may waive any
provision of this Act with respect to a country if the President
determines and so reports to Congress that--
(1) the government of the country has ceased the violations
giving rise to the action under this Act;
(2) the exercise of the waiver would further the purposes
of this Act; or
(3) it is important to the national interests of the United
States to do so.
(b) Congressional Notification.--Prior to exercising his authority
to waive any provision of this Act pursuant to subsection (a), the
President shall notify Congress of the waiver together with a detailed
justification thereof.
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