[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 413 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 413

 Expressing the concern of the House of Representatives regarding the 
 amount of United States foreign assistance provided to Egypt over the 
past 25 years without meaningful political reforms by the Government of 
                     Egypt, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 28, 2005

 Mr. Poe (for himself, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Ms. Berkley, Mr. Saxton, Mr. 
Pence, Mr. Weiner, and Mr. Feeney) submitted the following resolution; 
     which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the concern of the House of Representatives regarding the 
 amount of United States foreign assistance provided to Egypt over the 
past 25 years without meaningful political reforms by the Government of 
                     Egypt, and for other purposes.

Whereas promoting freedom and democracy in Egypt is a foreign policy and 
        national security priority of the United States;
Whereas, despite being the second largest recipient of United States foreign 
        assistance, Egypt's democratic development has been extremely limited 
        and its human rights record remains poor, according to the Department of 
        State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004;
Whereas criminal charges by the Government of Egypt against democracy activist 
        and presidential candidate Ayman Nour have been dismissed as baseless by 
        independent Egyptian lawyers and Nour's trial is still pending until 
        after the September 2005 Egyptian presidential elections;
Whereas Egyptian authorities continue to mistreat and torture prisoners, 
        arbitrarily arrest and detain persons, hold detainees in prolonged 
        pretrial detention, and occasionally engage in mass arrests without 
        charge;
Whereas the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom's 2005 
        report on Egypt finds that discrimination, intolerance, and other human 
        rights violations committed by Egyptian authorities affect a broad 
        spectrum of Egyptian society, including Muslims, Coptic Christians, 
        Jews, Baha'is and members of other religious communities;
Whereas tactics used by Egyptian state security services of interference, 
        harassment, and surveillance against extremists and suspected terrorists 
        are also employed against law-abiding members of all religious groups;
Whereas state of emergency laws permit Egyptian state security services to 
        detain individuals, particularly dissident Muslims, on charges of 
        ``unorthodox'' Islamic beliefs and state security courts to prosecute 
        those individuals who have been charged with insulting the so-called 
        ``heavenly religions,'' Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, or inciting 
        sectarian strife;
Whereas violent attacks on religious minorities, particularly Coptic Christians, 
        by militant groups are an ongoing concern and the Government of Egypt 
        has failed in the past to provide adequate protection for Christians or 
        their property;
Whereas permits required to build new non-Muslim places of worship require the 
        approval of the President of Egypt, and repairs to existing non-Muslim 
        places of worship require the approval of Egyptian governorates, causing 
        such places of worship to languish for long periods of time under 
        restrictive rules and practices;
Whereas anti-Semitism in the state-controlled and semi-official media of Egypt 
        as well as in the education system is prevalent;
Whereas the Government of Egypt requires all citizens and residents to possess 
        an identity card, listing an individual's religion with choices limited 
        to Islam, Christianity, or Judaism;
Whereas converts from Islam to another religion have difficulty obtaining new 
        identity cards when they attempt to register their change in religion 
        with Egyptian authorities and often face harassment;
Whereas those converts who alter their own identification cards and other 
        official documents to reflect their new religious affiliation risk being 
        criminally charged with falsifying official documents;
Whereas all Baha'i institutions and community activities in Egypt are banned 
        under a 1960 presidential decree, members of the Baha'i faith cannot 
        obtain mandatory identity cards unless they list themselves as one of 
        the three state-sanctioned religions, and Baha'is have been labeled as 
        apostates by Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Center funded by the Government 
        of Egypt;
Whereas the Government of Egypt can and should do more to protect the right to 
        freedom of religion or belief, in accordance with international human 
        rights instruments to which Egypt is a party, to punish those 
        responsible for religiously-motivated violence, and to combat widespread 
        and virulent anti-Semitism and other intolerance in the media and in the 
        education system;
Whereas high level officials of the Government of Egypt have made public 
        statements for years pledging political reforms, yet no discernible 
        improvements are evident; and
Whereas there are a number of Egyptian policies in place that could be repealed 
        immediately and thereby demonstrate the Government of Egypt's commitment 
        to political reform: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) calls on the Government of Egypt to immediately--
                    (A) meet its obligations under the Universal 
                Declaration of Human Rights and the International 
                Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt 
                is a party;
                    (B) repeal the state of emergency and allow full 
                access to the constitutional and international 
                guarantees of the rule of law and due process for those 
                individuals charged with violating section 98(f) of the 
                Egyptian Penal Code, which ``prohibits citizens from 
                ridiculing or insulting heavenly religions or inciting 
                sectarian strife,'' instead of having those cases heard 
                by the state security courts;
                    (C) repeal a 1960 presidential decree banning 
                members of the Baha'i community from practicing their 
                faith;
                    (D) take all appropriate steps to prevent and 
                punish acts of anti-Semitism, including condemnation of 
                anti-Semitic acts, and, while vigorously protecting 
                freedom of expression, counteract anti-Semitic rhetoric 
                in the government-controlled media and other organized 
                anti-Semitic activities;
                    (E) investigate and prosecute acts of violence 
                against any individuals or groups on the basis of their 
                religion;
                    (F) implement procedures that would ensure that all 
                places of worship are afforded equal treatment and 
                protection; and
                    (G) reform the national educational curriculum to 
                ensure that textbooks and other materials exclude any 
                language or images that promote enmity, intolerance, 
                hatred, or violence toward any individual or group of 
                persons based on faith, gender, ethnicity, or 
                nationality; and
            (2) calls on the Government of the United States to--
                    (A) seek to negotiate an agreement with the 
                Government of Egypt to establish a timetable, with a 
                set of specific benchmarks for progress on political 
                and human rights reforms, such that--
                            (i) if the benchmarks are met by the 
                        Government of Egypt, the United States should 
                        consider providing economic assistance in areas 
                        where significant progress on reform has been 
                        made; or
                            (ii) if the benchmarks are not met by the 
                        Government of Egypt, the United States should 
                        reconsider the dimensions and direction of 
                        economic assistance to Egypt; and
                    (B) offer direct assistance to eligible Egyptian 
                human rights and other civil society groups, which seek 
                to strengthen nonviolent, democratic principles and 
                promote the rule of law, without prior approval of the 
                Government of Egypt.
                                 <all>