[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 322 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 322

  Expressing the sense of the Senate on religious minorities in Iraq.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 26, 2009

 Mr. Levin (for himself, Mr. Brownback, and Mr. Durbin) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the Senate on religious minorities in Iraq.

Whereas threats against the smallest religious minorities in Iraq jeopardize the 
        future of Iraq as a diverse, pluralistic, and free society;
Whereas according to the United States Commission on International Religious 
        Freedom, there are grave threats to religious freedom in Iraq, 
        particularly for the smallest, most vulnerable religious minorities in 
        Iraq, including Chaldeans, Syriacs, Assyrians, and other Christians, 
        Sabean Mandeans, and Yazidis;
Whereas the February 2009 Country Report on Human Rights issued by the 
        Department of State identifies on-going ``misappropriation of official 
        authority by sectarian, criminal, and extremist groups'' as among the 
        significant and continuing human rights problems in Iraq;
Whereas in recent years, there have been alarming numbers of religiously 
        motivated killings, abductions, beatings, rapes, threats, intimidation, 
        forced conversions, marriages, and displacement from homes and 
        businesses, and attacks on religious leaders, pilgrims, and holy sites, 
        in Iraq, with the smallest religious minorities in Iraq having been 
        among the most vulnerable, although Iraqis from many religious 
        communities, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, have suffered in this 
        violence;
Whereas the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom 
        continues to recommend that the President designate Iraq as a ``country 
        of particular concern'', or CPC, under the International Religious 
        Freedom Act of 1998, because of the ongoing, severe abuses of religious 
        freedom in Iraq;
Whereas the Assyrian International News Agency reports that 59 churches have 
        been bombed in Iraq between June 2004 and July 2009;
Whereas persecution and violence in Iraq have extended to church leaders as 
        well, such as the March 2008 kidnap for ransom and killing of 65-year-
        old Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho;
Whereas members of small religious minority communities in Iraq do not have 
        militia or tribal structures to defend them, do not receive adequate 
        official protection, and are legally, politically, and economically 
        marginalized;
Whereas control of ethnically and religiously mixed areas, including the Nineveh 
        and Kirkuk governorates, is disputed between the Kurdistan regional 
        government and the Government of Iraq, and Chaldeans, Syriacs, 
        Assyrians, and other Christians, Sabean Mandeans, Yazidis, Shabak, and 
        Turkomen are caught in the middle of this struggle for control and have 
        been targeted for abuses and discrimination as a result;
Whereas governments in the region report that approximately 2,400,000 refugees 
        and asylum seekers have fled Iraq since 2003;
Whereas many religious minorities in Iraq, who made up about 3 percent of the 
        population of Iraq in 2003, have fled to other areas in Iraq or to other 
        countries, where they reflect a disproportionately high percentage of 
        registered Iraqi refugees;
Whereas the flight of such refugees has substantially diminished their numbers 
        in Iraq, and few show signs of returning to Iraq;
Whereas approximately 1,400,000 Christians were estimated to have lived in Iraq 
        as of 2003, including Chaldean Catholics, Assyrian Orthodox, Assyrian 
        Church of the East, Syriac Catholics, Syriac Orthodox, Armenians 
        (Catholic and Orthodox), Protestants, and Evangelicals;
Whereas it is widely reported that only 500,000 to 700,000 indigenous Christians 
        remain in Iraq as of 2009;
Whereas the Sabean Mandean community in Iraq reports that almost 90 percent of 
        the members of that community either fled Iraq or have been killed, 
        leaving only about 3,500 to 5,000 Mandeans in Iraq as of 2009;
Whereas the Yazidi community in Iraq reportedly now numbers about 500,000, a 
        decrease from about 700,000 in 2005;
Whereas the Baha'i faith, estimated to have only 2,000 adherents in Iraq, 
        remains prohibited in Iraq under a 1970 law;
Whereas the ancient and once-large Jewish community in Iraq now numbers fewer 
        than 10, and they essentially live in hiding;
Whereas in 2008, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 
        reported that approximately 221,000 Iraqis returned to their areas of 
        origin in Iraq, the vast majority of whom settled into neighborhoods or 
        governorates controlled by members of their own religious community;
Whereas many of these returnees reported returning because of difficult economic 
        conditions in their countries of asylum, principally Syria, Jordan, 
        Egypt, and Lebanon; and
Whereas Chaldeans, Syriacs, Assyrians, and other Christians, Sabean Mandeans, 
        and Yazidis are not believed to be among these returnees: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the United States remains deeply concerned about the 
        plight of vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities of Iraq 
        and is particularly concerned for the Chaldeans, Syriacs, 
        Assyrians, and other Christians, Sabean Mandeans, Yazidis, 
        Baha'is, Jews, and Muslim ethnic minorities, the Shabak and 
        Turkomen, and other religious and ethnic minorities of Iraq;
            (2) the United States Government and the United Nations 
        Assistance Mission for Iraq should urge the Government of Iraq 
        to enhance security at places of worship in Iraq, particularly 
        where religious minorities are known to be at risk;
            (3) the United States Government should continue to work 
        with the Government of Iraq to--
                    (A) urgently train and deploy into the Iraqi police 
                and security forces members of vulnerable minority 
                communities in Iraq, including in Nineveh and other 
                areas in which religious minorities are located, who 
                are as representative as possible of those communities; 
                and
                    (B) ensure that members of such communities--
                            (i) suffer no discrimination in 
                        recruitment, employment, or advancement in the 
                        Iraqi police and security forces; and
                            (ii) while employed in the Iraqi police and 
                        security forces, be assigned to their locations 
                        of origin, rather than being transferred to 
                        other areas;
            (4) the Government of Iraq should, with the assistance of 
        the United States Government--
                    (A) ensure that the upcoming national elections in 
                Iraq are safe, fair, and free of intimidation and 
                violence so that all Iraqis, including religious 
                minorities, can participate in the elections; and
                    (B) permit and facilitate election monitoring by 
                experts from local and international nongovernmental 
                organizations, the international community, and the 
                United Nations, particularly in minority areas;
            (5) the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan regional 
        government should work towards a peaceful and timely resolution 
        of disputes over territories;
            (6) the United States Government and the United Nations 
        Assistance Mission for Iraq should urge the Government of Iraq 
        to work with minority communities and their representatives to 
        develop measures to implement article 125 of the Iraq 
        Constitution, which guarantees ``the administrative, political, 
        cultural, and educational rights of the various nationalities, 
        such as Turkomen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and all the other 
        constituents'' in Nineveh and other areas where these groups 
        are present;
            (7) the Government of Iraq should take affirmative measures 
        to reverse the legal, political, and economic marginalization 
        of religious minorities in Iraq;
            (8) the United States Government should direct assistance 
        to projects that develop the ability of ethnic and religious 
        minorities in Iraq to organize themselves civically and 
        politically to effectively convey their concerns to government;
            (9) the United States Government should continue to fund 
        capacity-building programs for the Iraqi Ministry of Human 
        Rights, the independent national Human Rights Commission, and a 
        new independent minorities committee whose membership is 
        selected by minority communities of Iraq;
            (10) the Government of Iraq should direct the Iraqi 
        Ministry of Human Rights to investigate and issue a public 
        report on abuses against and the marginalization of minority 
        communities in Iraq and make recommendations to address such 
        abuses;
            (11) the Government of Iraq should, with the assistance of 
        the United States Government and international organizations, 
        help ensure that displaced Iraqis considering return to Iraq 
        have the proper information needed to make informed decisions 
        regarding such return; and
            (12) the United States Government and international 
        organizations should continue to work with the Government of 
        Iraq to develop the legal framework necessary to address 
        property disputes resulting when displaced Iraqis attempt to 
        return to their homes in Iraq.
                                 <all>