H. Res. 191

In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

May 23, 2005.

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
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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 sell 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;
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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 cel-
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ebrate 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
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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
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posing court challenges and other obstacles against

such implementation.

Attest:

Clerk.