106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. CON. RES. 39

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Whereas 10 percent of the citizens of the Islamic Republic of

Iran are members of religious minority groups;

Whereas, according to the State Department and internationally recognized human rights organizations, such as

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, religious minorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran—including Sunni Muslims, Baha’is, Christians, and Jews—have

been the victims of human rights violations solely because

of their status as religious minorities;

Whereas the 55th session of the United Nations Commission

on Human Rights passed Resolution 1999/13, which expresses the concern of the international community over

‘‘continued discrimination against religious minorities’’ in

the Islamic Republic of Iran, and calls on that country

to moderate its policy on religious minorities until they

are ‘‘completely emancipated’’;

Whereas more than half the Jews in Iran have been forced

to flee that country since the Islamic Revolution of 1979

because of religious persecution, and many of them now

reside in the United States;

Whereas the Iranian Jewish community, with a 2,500-year

history and currently numbering some 30,000 people, is

the oldest Jewish community living in the Diaspora;
2

SCON 39 ES

Whereas five Jews have been executed by the Iranian government in the past five years without having been tried;

Whereas there has been a noticeable increase recently in antiSemitic propaganda in the government-controlled Iranian

press;

Whereas, on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover 1999,

thirteen or more Jews, including community and religious

leaders in the city of Shiraz, were arrested by the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran; and

Whereas, in keeping with its dismal record on providing accused prisoners with due process and fair treatment, the

Islamic Republic of Iran failed to charge the detained

Jews with any specific crime or allow visitation by relatives of the detained for more than two months: Now,

therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives

2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that the

3 United States should—

4 (1) continue to work through the United Na5 tions to assure that the Islamic Republic of Iran im6 plements the recommendations of resolution 1999/

7 13;

8 (2) continue to condemn, in the strongest pos9 sible terms, the recent arrest of members of Iran’s

10 Jewish minority and urge their immediate release;

11 (3) urge all nations having relations with the

12 Islamic Republic of Iran to condemn the treatment

13 of religious minorities in Iran and call for the re-
3

SCON 39 ES

1 lease of all prisoners held on the basis of their reli2 gious beliefs; and

3 (4) maintain the current United States policy

4 toward the Islamic Republic of Iran unless and until

5 that country moderates its treatment of religious mi6 norities.

Passed the Senate June 23, 1999.

Attest:

Secretary.
106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. CON. RES. 39

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the

munity.rests of members of that country’s Jewish comRepublic of Iran, and particularly the recent artreatment of religious minorities in the Islamic