[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 410 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        H.Con.Res.410
                                         Agreed to July 12, 2004        

                       One Hundred Eighth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
           the twentieth day of January, two thousand and four


                          Concurrent Resolution

Whereas the Marshall Islands were ruled under a succession of colonial 
  regimes, including under Spanish and German rule, followed in the 
  20th century by Japanese rule under the League of Nations system for 
  governance of territories;

Whereas military activities of Imperial Japan based in the Marshall 
  Islands before and during Word War II established the strategic 
  importance of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific;

Whereas the Marshall Islands were liberated from Japanese military 
  occupation in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, 
  during which brave Marshallese people risked their lives to aid the 
  Armed Forces of the United States and its allies;

Whereas in 1947 Congress approved a trusteeship agreement with the 
  United Nations Security Council under which the United States became 
  the administering power with plenary powers of government in the 
  Marshall Islands;

Whereas during the United Nations trusteeship period the United States 
  fulfilled its commitment to promote the progress of the Marshall 
  Islands toward democratic self-government and self-determination, 
  leading to the establishment of local self-government that culminated 
  in a constitutional convention in which delegates representing the 
  people of the Marshall Islands proposed that they be constituted as a 
  self-governing nation;

Whereas in accordance with the enabling measures adopted by the United 
  States as administering power of the Marshall Islands, which 
  encouraged and fully supported the emergence of the Marshall Islands 
  as a duly constituted nation based on the freely expressed will of 
  the people, in 1979 the people of the Marshall Islands adopted their 
  own constitution and subsequently declared their form of government 
  to be a republic;

Whereas the Constitution of the Republic of the Marshall Islands 
  established a parliamentary governmental system with separation of 
  powers and a ``Bill of Rights,'' guaranteeing democracy and freedom 
  for the Marshallese people based on the rule of law, limited 
  government, and individual liberty;

Whereas the United States and the duly constituted Government of the 
  Republic of the Marshall Islands adopted a Compact of Free 
  Association to define government-to-government relations between the 
  United States and the Marshall Islands as two sovereign nations under 
  mutually agreed terms upon termination of the United Nations 
  trusteeship for the Marshall Islands;

Whereas the promulgation of a national constitution made possible the 
  termination of the United Nations trusteeship in 1986 and the 
  emergence of the Republic of the Marshall Islands as a sovereign 
  nation in free association with the United States under the Compact 
  of Free Association, forming an alliance that preserves the close and 
  special political, social, economic, and military relationship 
  between the two countries that developed during the trusteeship 
  period;

Whereas the United States has no closer alliance with any nation or 
  group of nations than it does with the Republic of the Marshall 
  Islands under the Compact of Free Association, which continues the 
  strategic partnership and role of the Marshall Islands in United 
  States strategic programs based in the Marshall Islands, which began 
  at the end of World War II and has continued under the trusteeship 
  and Compact to promote the mutual security of the United States and 
  the Marshall Islands;

Whereas the Republic of the Marshall Islands is a model for transition 
  of formerly non-self-governing territory ravaged by war to a 
  sovereign political status as a stable democracy, a success story for 
  institution building and recovery from conflict not only for the 
  Pacific region but throughout the world;

Whereas in light of the shared history of the United States and the 
  Republic of the Marshall Islands and special relations under the 
  Compact of Free Association, it is entirely fitting for Congress to 
  recognize the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of 
  the Republic of the Marshall Islands, recalling the importance of 
  duly constituted self-government in the self-determination process 
  leading to national sovereignty for the Marshall Islands; and

Whereas the Republic of the Marshall Islands has remained one of the 
  staunchest allies of the United States during the cold war and the 
  war on terrorism, and the voting record of the Republic of the 
  Marshall Islands as a member state in the United Nations General 
  Assembly is unparalleled by any other country, further demonstrating 
  the shared commitment of the two nations to promote democracy and 
  global peace: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress--
        (1) recognizes the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the 
    Constitution of the Republic of the Marshall Islands; and
        (2) recognizes the Republic of the Marshall Islands as a 
    staunch ally of the United States, committed to principles of 
    democracy and freedom for the Pacific region and throughout the 
    world.
  Attest:

                                 Clerk of the House of Representatives.

  Attest:

                                               Secretary of the Senate.