2nd Session
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives with respect to violations in Western Europe of provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and other international agreements relating to the freedom of individuals to profess and practice religion or belief.
September 21, 2000
Mr. SALMON (for himself, Mr. PAYNE, and Mr. GILMAN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations.
Expressing the
sense of the House of Representatives with respect to violations in Western Europe of
provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and other international agreements relating to the
freedom of individuals to profess and practice religion or belief.
Whereas under
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion of 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”;
Whereas under
Article 18 o9f the International covenant on Civil and Political Rights, “No one
shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or adopt a religion or
belief of his choice”;
Whereas the
Participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
have undertaken a series of specific commitments designed to ensure the freedom of the
individual to profess and practice religion or belief, including a commitment by those
States to ensure the full and effective exercise of the freedom of thought, conscience,
religion, or belief,, in their laws and regulations;
Whereas
Principle VII of the Helsinki Final Act commits the OSCE Participating States to “recognize
and respect the freedom of individual to profess and practice, alone or in community with
others, religion or belief acting in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience”;
Whereas the 1989
Vienna Concluding Document commits the OSCE Participating States to “take effective
measures to prevent and eliminate discrimination against individuals or communities on the
grounds of religion or belief in the recognition, exercise and enjoyment of human rights
and fundamental freedoms in all fields of civil, political, economic, social and cultural
life”;
Whereas in the
1991 Moscow Document, the OSCE Participating States “categorically and irrevocably
declare that the commitments undertaken in the field of the human dimension… are
matters of direct an legitimate concern to all participating States and do not belong
exclusively to the internal affairs of the State concerned”;
Whereas freedom
of thought, conscience, religion, or belief is inextricably linked to the exercise of
other rights, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, the
right to freedom of association with others, and the right to freedom of expression, and
the recognition that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any
discrimination to the equal protection of the law, including in employment;
Whereas the
Department of State’s annual reports on religious freedom and human rights have
documented numerous instances of government discrimination based on religion or belief in
Western Europe, including discriminatory acts against American members of several
different religious denominations and beliefs:
Whereas the
Office of the United States Trade Representative has listed Germany as a country engaged
in discriminatory trade practices because of “sect filter” guidelines issued to
all federal government ministries and used by German state and local governments, which
have the potential to discriminate against United States firms in German procurement
decisions by permitting government entities to reject bids and immediately terminate
contracts if a firm does not sign a “sect filter” document attesting that the
firm and its employees are not affiliated with certain religious beliefs;
Whereas a bill
passed by the French National Assembly on June 22, 2000, contains repressive measures
which would have a chilling effect on the freedom religion and belief, including the
dissolution of targeted religious associations, the imprisonment of members of such
groups, and infringement upon freedom of speech, including speech intended to persuade
another person to a particular point of view, whether philosophical or religious;
Whereas a 1996
French National Assembly report listed 173 organizations as suspect, including independent
evangelical Christian churches, Scientologists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and
Unificationists and this report has been used by both private and official entities to
harass, intimidate, deny employment, and deny commercial loans to listed groups, and
members of other religious groups, such as Southern Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, the
Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement, Opus Dei, and the Society of Jesus, have also been
subject to recent discrimination and harassment at the hands of the French Government;
Whereas the
Parliament of Austria passed a law in 1997 which codified a tiered system of government
recognition and preferential treatment, including government funding of religious groups,
and which requires religious groups seeking recognition to undergo government surveillance
for at least 10, or up to 20, years to prove legitimacy to government officials;
Whereas the
Austrian law on religion is cited as justification for more repressive laws being proposed
in nascent democracies further east, such as Hungary and Romania and has been cited by
Russian officials as justification for an oppressive 1997 Russian religion law;
Whereas the
Government of Austria has instituted a “sect” office which disseminates official
propaganda on religious groups not recognized by the government and leading to a chilling
effect on religious liberty;
Whereas the
Parliament of Belgium issued a report in 1997 on “sects” with a widely
circulates informal appendix listing 189 groups as suspect, including many Protestant and
Catholic groups, Quakers, Hasidic Jews, Buddhists, and members of the Young Women’s
Christian Association (YWCA), based on rumor and speculation found in police files, and
implicitly warning the public to avoid such “dangerous” groups;
Whereas some
evangelical and charismatic Christian churches have been targeted in parliamentary
investigations in France, Belgium, and Germany;
Whereas Jehovah’s
Witnesses have been subjected in France to various forms of harassment, including the
denial of the freedom to assemble for worship in facilities permitted to be used by other
faiths and are the targets of governmental tax audits and punitive tax assessments,
continue to suffer religious discrimination and the economic consequences of being
categorized as a “dangerous sect” by France’s Parliamentary Commission on
Sects, have been informed by German tax authorities that the long-standing exemption from
property taxation for their houses of worship may be canceled in the near future, gave
been labeled a “hard core sect” in Belgium by some educators, continue to suffer
from employment discrimination in Austria, France, and Germany, and are discriminated
against in foster parent proceedings in Germany and in child custody matters in Belgium;
Whereas Muslims
have been subjected to harassment, including police brutality and attacks by extremist
groups, particularly in Germany and France, and Muslim women are subject to frequent
discrimination and other forms of abuse and harassment because they wear a head covering;
Whereas
adherents to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been subject to continued acts of harassment,
including confiscation of religious materials, and are prevented from freely sharing their
beliefs in several OSCE Participating States;
Whereas
Scientologists have been subject to pervasive civil, political, and economic
discrimination, harassment, surveillance, and orchestrated boycotts in Germany, France,
Belgium, and Austria; and
Whereas these
actions by Western European governments have contributed to intolerance by public and
private actors who have discriminated in hiring practices or terminated employment based
on an individual’s religious affiliation: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the
House of Representatives-
1) disapproves of
the growing intolerance, discrimination, and violence directed against individuals and
groups because of their religion or belief, in violation of the Helsinki Final Act and
other international agreements;
2) expresses grave
concern about the adoption of laws and regulations by Participating States of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that-
a)
discriminate against minority or so-called “nontraditional” religions or
beliefs; and
b) limit the freedom of individuals to profess and
practice religion or beliefs; and
3)
calls upon the President and the Ambassador at Large for
International Religious Freedom to-
a) raise violations of the freedom of thought, conscience,
religion, or belief, at every appropriate level with representatives of countries that
have failed to implement their international commitments and obligations in this regard;
b)
ensure that the United States makes full use of existing meetings and structures of
international organizations, including meetings of the OSCE Permanent Council as well as
periodic implementation review meetings on human dimension issues, to raise violations of
Participating States’ freely undertaken international commitments both to protect and
to provide for the full and effective exercise of the freedom of thought, conscience,
religion, or belief under their respective jurisdictions;
and
c)
support the inclusion of experts on religious liberty on United
States delegations to appropriate meetings of international organizations, including the
OSCE.