[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 191 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 191

 Urging the Government of Romania to recognize its responsibilities to 
   provide equitable, prompt, and fair restitution to all religious 
communities for property confiscated by the former Communist government 
                              in Romania.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 6, 2005

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Urging the Government of Romania to recognize its responsibilities to 
   provide equitable, prompt, and fair restitution to all religious 
communities for property confiscated by the former Communist government 
                              in Romania.

Whereas the establishment of a Communist government in Romania after World War 
        II proved disastrous for established religious institutions;
Whereas a central element of persecution by the Communist government in Romania 
        was the uncompensated confiscation of real and personal property from 
        religious communities and from leaders of religious communities, and the 
        arrest and persecution of religious leaders;
Whereas 2,140 schools, hospitals, orphanages, and other charitable and civic 
        institutions were illegally confiscated under communism from the four 
        historic Hungarian churches (Roman Catholic, Hungarian Reformed, 
        Evangelical Lutheran, and Unitarian) and actual possession and use of 
        such properties has been denied in all but 30 cases;
Whereas Romania's wartime Fascist government began the process of confiscating 
        Jewish property in September 1940 and its postwar Communist government 
        reaffirmed most of these confiscations;
Whereas only a handful of Jewish communal properties have been restituted, often 
        with government agencies still using the facilities and paying no rent, 
        and over 1,000 communal properties remain in the possession of the 
        Government of Romania;
Whereas some Jewish claims have been willfully ignored for years, such as in the 
        case of agricultural land in Iasi, where municipal authorities continue 
        to sells parcels of this land;
Whereas on January 2, 1990, under terms of Decree-Law 126/1990, the 1948 decree 
        which dissolved the Romanian Greek Catholic Church was abrogated, 
        permitting Greek Catholics again to worship openly, and legal provisions 
        and procedures were established for the return of confiscated properties 
        that before 1948 belonged to the Greek Catholic Church;
Whereas the commission established under Decree-Law 126/1990 composed of 
        representatives of the Romanian Government and Greek Catholic Church has 
        proven ineffective in resolving disputed claims;
Whereas Romanian Law No. 501/2002, providing for the restitution of religious 
        properties, was adopted in June 2002 without consultation with the 
        affected religious communities, does not effectively meet the needs of 
        those communities, contains numerous legal deficiencies, and is delayed 
        in its implementation;
Whereas all of the religious communities have demanded the return of property 
        seized by the Romanian Communist government;
Whereas since 1990, post-Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe have 
        grappled with the question of how to redress these wrongful 
        confiscations of religious property, but Romania has lagged 
        significantly behind other post-Communist countries;
Whereas since the early 1990s, the United States Commission on Security and 
        Cooperation in Europe has monitored the property restitution and 
        compensation efforts being made by the governments of post-Communist 
        countries in Central and Eastern Europe;
Whereas with respect to the role of the Romanian courts in the restitution 
        process, the Chairman of the United States Commission on Security and 
        Cooperation in Europe observed: ``In the mid-1990s . . . hundreds of 
        court decisions in favor of property claimants were reversed by the 
        Supreme Court after they had become final and irrevocable judgments. The 
        European Court of Human Rights has recently ruled that these actions 
        violated the European Convention on Human Rights.''; and
Whereas Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides 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.'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) notes with concern the unwillingness of past 
        governments of Romania to recognize the responsibility to 
        provide equitable, prompt, and fair restitution of religious 
        property that was confiscated by the former Communist 
        government of Romania;
            (2) calls on the Government of Romania--
                    (A) to respect the constitutional rights of 
                existence and practice of all religious communities to 
                celebrate and practice their own religion in 
                respectable locations, the right to propagate the given 
                beliefs, and the right to openly communicate the 
                beliefs and laws of the religion;
                    (B) to provide fair, prompt, and equitable 
                restitution to all religious communities under Romanian 
                law and in accordance with the Constitution of Romania 
                and all applicable international agreements to which 
                Romania is a party; and
                    (C) to provide restitution for the property rights 
                of all agricultural and forestry lands belonging to 
                religious communities;
            (3) calls upon the Government of Romania to amend Decree-
        Law 126/1990 to require that claims involving Romanian Greek 
        Catholic properties be heard by an independent, disinterested, 
        nonreligious commission, and calls upon the Government of 
        Romania to prevent the demolition of Greek Catholic churches 
        and to provide immediately for the security of all Greek 
        Catholic churches and other religious buildings dating from the 
        18th and 19th centuries; and
            (4) with respect to Romanian Law No. 501/2002, calls upon 
        the Government of Romania--
                    (A) to amend the law to reflect the principle of 
                ``restitution in integrum'' as urged by Resolution 
                1123/1997 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council 
                of Europe and to restore full ownership of all property 
                and all rights emanating from such ownership;
                    (B) to amend the law to reduce the five-year period 
                to one year during which public institutions can 
                continue to occupy confiscated religious properties;
                    (C) to amend the law to include compensation, 
                according to an equitable formula, for demolished 
                religious properties;
                    (D) to increase to fair market value the amount of 
                rent paid to religious communities for properties of 
                which they cannot immediately regain use under law;
                    (E) to eliminate the practice of requiring monetary 
                compensation from religious communities to cover state 
                costs for maintenance and ``improvement'' of the 
                buildings since their confiscation in the 1940s; and
                    (F) to obligate local government officials, bodies, 
                and agencies to provide all necessary documentation and 
                cooperation to facilitate the implementation of 
                decisions issued by the central government's Special 
                Restitution Committee and to cease posing court 
                challenges and other obstacles against such 
                implementation.
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