H. R. 2431—2
Sec. 406. Effects on existing contracts.
Sec. 407. Presidential waiver.
Sec. 408. Publication in Federal Register.
Sec. 409. Termination of Presidential actions.
Sec. 410. Preclusion of judicial review.
Subtitle II—Strengthening Existing Law
Sec. 421. United States assistance.
Sec. 422. Multilateral assistance.
Sec. 423. Exports of certain items used in particularly severe violations of religious
freedom.
TITLE V—PROMOTION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Sec. 501. Assistance for promoting religious freedom.
Sec. 502. International broadcasting.
Sec. 503. International exchanges.
Sec. 504. Foreign Service awards.
TITLE VI—REFUGEE, ASYLUM, AND CONSULAR MATTERS
Sec. 601. Use of Annual Report.
Sec. 602. Reform of refugee policy.
Sec. 603. Reform of asylum policy.
Sec. 604. Inadmissibility of foreign government officials who have engaged in
particularly severe violations of religious freedom.
Sec. 605. Studies on the effect of expedited removal provisions on asylum claims.
TITLE VII—MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Sec. 701. Business codes of conduct.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; POLICY.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The right to freedom of religion undergirds the very
origin and existence of the United States. Many of our Nation’s
founders fled religious persecution abroad, cherishing in their
hearts and minds the ideal of religious freedom. They estab-
lished in law, as a fundamental right and as a pillar of our
Nation, the right to freedom of religion. From its birth to
this day, the United States has prized this legacy of religious
freedom and honored this heritage by standing for religious
freedom and offering refuge to those suffering religious persecu-
tion.
(2) Freedom of religious belief and practice is a universal
human right and fundamental freedom articulated in numerous
international instruments, including the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the Helsinki Accords, the Declaration on the
Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination
Based on Religion or Belief, the United Nations Charter, and
the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms.
(3) Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
recognizes that ‘‘Everyone 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.’’. Article
18(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
recognizes that ‘‘Everyone shall have the right to freedom of
thought, conscience, and religion. This right shall include free-
dom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice,
and freedom, either individually or in community with others
and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief
H. R. 2431—3
in worship, observance, practice, and teaching ’’. Governments
have the responsibility to protect the fundamental rights of
their citizens and to pursue justice for all. Religious freedom
is a fundamental right of every individual, regardless of race,
sex, country, creed, or nationality, and should never be arbitrar-
ily abridged by any government.
(4) The right to freedom of religion is under renewed and,
in some cases, increasing assault in many countries around
the world. More than one-half of the world’s population lives
under regimes that severely restrict or prohibit the freedom
of their citizens to study, believe, observe, and freely practice
the religious faith of their choice. Religious believers and
communities suffer both government-sponsored and govern-
ment-tolerated violations of their rights to religious freedom.
Among the many forms of such violations are state-sponsored
slander campaigns, confiscations of property, surveillance by
security police, including by special divisions of ‘‘religious
police’’, severe prohibitions against construction and repair of
places of worship, denial of the right to assemble and relegation
of religious communities to illegal status through arbitrary
registration laws, prohibitions against the pursuit of education
or public office, and prohibitions against publishing, distribut-
ing, or possessing religious literature and materials.
(5) Even more abhorrent, religious believers in many coun-
tries face such severe and violent forms of religious persecution
as detention, torture, beatings, forced marriage, rape, imprison-
ment, enslavement, mass resettlement, and death merely for
the peaceful belief in, change of or practice of their faith.
In many countries, religious believers are forced to meet
secretly, and religious leaders are targeted by national security
forces and hostile mobs.
(6) Though not confined to a particular region or regime,
religious persecution is often particularly widespread, system-
atic, and heinous under totalitarian governments and in coun-
tries with militant, politicized religious majorities.
(7) Congress has recognized and denounced acts of religious
persecution through the adoption of the following resolutions:
(A) House Resolution 515 of the One Hundred Fourth
Congress, expressing the sense of the House of Representa-
tives with respect to the persecution of Christians world-
wide.
(B) Senate Concurrent Resolution 71 of the One Hun-
dred Fourth Congress, expressing the sense of the Senate
regarding persecution of Christians worldwide.
(C) House Concurrent Resolution 102 of the One Hun-
dred Fourth Congress, expressing the sense of the House
of Representatives concerning the emancipation of the Ira-
nian Baha’i community.
(b) POLICY.—It shall be the policy of the United States, as
follows:
(1) To condemn violations of religious freedom, and to pro-
mote, and to assist other governments in the promotion of,
the fundamental right to freedom of religion.
(2) To seek to channel United States security and develop-
ment assistance to governments other than those found to
be engaged in gross violations of the right to freedom of religion,
as set forth in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, in the
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International Financial Institutions Act of 1977, and in other
formulations of United States human rights policy.
(3) To be vigorous and flexible, reflecting both the unwaver-
ing commitment of the United States to religious freedom and
the desire of the United States for the most effective and
principled response, in light of the range of violations of reli-
gious freedom by a variety of persecuting regimes, and the
status of the relations of the United States with different
nations.
(4) To work with foreign governments that affirm and
protect religious freedom, in order to develop multilateral docu-
ments and initiatives to combat violations of religious freedom
and promote the right to religious freedom abroad.
(5) Standing for liberty and standing with the persecuted,
to use and implement appropriate tools in the United States
foreign 
policy 
apparatus, 
including 
diplomatic, 
political,
commercial, charitable, educational, and cultural channels, to
promote respect for religious freedom by all governments and
peoples.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) AMBASSADOR
AT
LARGE.—The term ‘‘Ambassador at
Large’’ means the Ambassador at Large for International Reli-
gious Freedom appointed under section 101(b).
(2) ANNUAL REPORT.—The term ‘‘Annual Report’’ means
the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom
described in section 102(b).
(3) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES.—The term
‘‘appropriate congressional committees’’ means—
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate
and the Committee on International Relations of the House
of Representatives; and
(B) in the case of any determination made with respect
to the taking of President action under paragraphs (9)
through (15) of section 405(a), the term includes the
committees described in subparagraph (A) and, where
appropriate, the Committee on Banking and Financial
Services of the House of Representatives and the Commit-
tee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate.
(4) COMMENSURATE
ACTION.—The term ‘‘commensurate
action’’ means action taken by the President under section
405(b).
(5) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ means the
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
established in section 201(a).
(6) COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES.—The
term ‘‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices’’ means
the annual reports required to be submitted by the Department
of State to Congress under sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of
the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
(7) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.—The term ‘‘Executive Summary’’
means the Executive Summary to the Annual Report, as
described in section 102(b)(1)(F).
(8) GOVERNMENT
OR
FOREIGN
GOVERNMENT.—The term
‘‘government’’ or ‘‘foreign government’’ includes any agency or
instrumentality of the government.
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(9) HUMAN RIGHTS REPORTS.—The term ‘‘Human Rights
Reports’’ means all reports submitted by the Department of
State to Congress under sections 116 and 502B of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961.
(10) OFFICE.—The term ‘‘Office’’ means the Office on Inter-
national Religious Freedom established in section 101(a).
(11) PARTICULARLY
SEVERE
VIOLATIONS
OF
RELIGIOUS
FREEDOM.—The term ‘‘particularly severe violations of religious
freedom’’ means systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of
religious freedom, including violations such as—
(A) torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment
or punishment;
(B) prolonged detention without charges;
(C) causing the disappearance of persons by the
abduction or clandestine detention of those persons; or
(D) other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty,
or the security of persons.
(12) SPECIAL ADVISER.—The term ‘‘Special Adviser’’ means
the Special Adviser to the President on International Religious
Freedom described in section 101(i) of the National Security
Act of 1947, as added by section 301 of this Act.
(13) VIOLATIONS
OF
RELIGIOUS
FREEDOM.—The term
‘‘violations of religious freedom’’ means violations of the inter-
nationally recognized right to freedom of religion and religious
belief and practice, as set forth in the international instruments
referred to in section 2(a)(2) and as described in section 2(a)(3),
including violations such as—
(A) arbitrary prohibitions on, restrictions of, or punish-
ment for—
(i) assembling for peaceful religious activities such
as worship, preaching, and prayer, including arbitrary
registration requirements;
(ii) speaking freely about one’s religious beliefs;
(iii) changing one’s religious beliefs and affiliation;
(iv) possession and distribution of religious
literature, including Bibles; or
(v) raising one’s children in the religious teachings
and practices of one’s choice; or
(B) any of the following acts if committed on account
of an individual’s religious belief or practice: detention,
interrogation, imposition of an onerous financial penalty,
forced labor, forced mass resettlement, imprisonment,
forced religious conversion, beating, torture, mutilation,
rape, enslavement, murder, and execution.
TITLE I—DEPARTMENT OF STATE
ACTIVITIES
SEC. 101. OFFICE ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM; AMBAS-
SADOR AT LARGE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS
FREEDOM.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE.—There is established within
the Department of State an Office on International Religious
Freedom that shall be headed by the Ambassador at Large for
International Religious Freedom appointed under subsection (b).