[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 545 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 545

 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that a specific 
 statement should be included in the Iraqi Transitional Administrative 
 Law guaranteeing the people of Iraq the right to freedom of thought, 
           conscience, and religion, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 26, 2004

Mr. Rohrabacher (for himself and Mrs. Maloney) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that a specific 
 statement should be included in the Iraqi Transitional Administrative 
 Law guaranteeing the people of Iraq the right to freedom of thought, 
           conscience, and religion, and for other purposes.

Whereas President George W. Bush stated: ``Iraqi democracy will succeed--and 
        that success will send forth the news, from Damascus to Teheran--that 
        freedom can be the future of every nation. The establishment of a free 
        Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the 
        global democratic revolution.'';
Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant 
        on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iraq is a party, provide that 
        ``everyone'' has ``the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and 
        religion'';
Whereas recent opinion polls in Iraq show that the vast majority of Iraqis 
        desire human rights protections, including the right to freedom of 
        thought, conscience, and religion;
Whereas the November 15, 2003, agreement between the Coalition Provisional 
        Authority (CPA) and the Iraqi Governing Council obliges the Council to 
        approve a Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) that will be a 
        ``guarantee of basic rights'' and ``will also respect the Islamic 
        identity of the majority of the Iraqi people, while providing guarantees 
        of religious freedom for all Iraqis'';
Whereas the Iraqi Governing Council is currently considering a draft 
        Transitional Administrative Law;
Whereas drafts of the Transitional Administrative Law that have been made 
        available to the public have not contained provisions that explicitly 
        guarantee to every Iraqi the right to freedom of thought, conscience, 
        and religion, as well as other fundamental rights and freedoms;
Whereas in publicly available drafts of the Transitional Administrative Law, 
        ``Islam,'' without further definition, is the only specifically 
        recognized source of legislation;
Whereas the Transitional Administrative Law must be approved by the 
        Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority;
Whereas in December 2003 the Iraqi Governing Council passed Resolution 137 which 
        would have, had the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority 
        approved it, placed matters of personal status and family law under the 
        jurisdiction of religious bodies applying religious law, displacing the 
        existing civil code which applies equally to all Iraqis, regardless of 
        their religion;
Whereas the current Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, 
        Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, recently publicly stated that the 
        Transitional Administrative Law ``should recognize the Islamic character 
        of the majority of the Iraqi people and that there should be freedom of 
        religion, freedom of religious practices, [and] equality before the law 
        for all individuals'';
Whereas Mohsen Abdel-Hamid, the current rotating head of the Iraqi Governing 
        Council and a member of the committee drafting the Transitional 
        Administrative Law, has proposed making Islamic law the ``principal 
        basis'' of legislation;
Whereas without a guarantee of the right to freedom of religion for each Iraqi, 
        the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Muslims in Iraq, in 
        particular Muslim women, could be determined by clerics, undermining 
        democracy and the rule of law;
Whereas despite the provision in the draft Transitional Administrative Law 
        guaranteeing gender equality, without a guarantee of the right to 
        freedom of religion for each Iraqi, Iraqi Muslim women may be subject to 
        discriminatory laws regarding inheritance, marriage, and child custody, 
        among other things;
Whereas in some Islamic countries where the right to freedom of religion for 
        each individual is denied, charges of blasphemy made by public officials 
        and others have been used to stifle public debate and impede democratic 
        reforms;
Whereas the provision of rights to groups alone could, for members of religious 
        minorities, limit the protection of freedom of religion to worship and 
        exclude other individual manifestations of religion or belief such as 
        the possession of religious literature, the operation of schools for 
        religious education, and the carrying out of charitable activities; and
Whereas effective guarantees of the rights of each individual, including the 
        right of each individual to freedom of thought, conscience, and 
        religion, is central to ensuring freedom and democracy and is the 
        cornerstone of the international human rights system: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) a specific statement should be included in the Iraqi 
        Transitional Administrative Law guaranteeing ``everyone'' in 
        Iraq with ``the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and 
        religion'' as affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human 
        Rights and specified in the International Covenant on Civil and 
        Political Rights, to which Iraq is a party;
            (2) a statement should be included in the Transitional 
        Administrative Law specifically identifying the principles of 
        democracy, pluralism, rule of law, and Iraq's international 
        obligations as fundamental sources for legislation, in addition 
        to the mention of Islam that is alone currently cited in 
        publicly available drafts of the Transitional Administrative 
        Law; and
            (3) an explicit commitment should be made in the 
        Transitional Administrative Law that Iraq will respect and 
        ensure the rights guaranteed by the international treaties and 
        conventions to which it is a party, including the International 
        Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the 
        Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
                                 <all>