•HRES 139 IH 
vate, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, prac-
tice, worship and observance’’; 
Whereas the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Polit-
ical Rights (ICCPR) states that ‘‘everyone shall have the 
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This 
right shall include freedom 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 in worship, observance, 
practice and teaching . . . [and] no one shall be subject 
to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to 
adopt a religion or belief of his choice’’; 
Whereas the Pew Research Center found that as of 2012 
nearly a quarter of the world’s nations and territories 
have anti-blasphemy laws or policies, and laws restricting 
blasphemy and apostasy are most common in the Middle 
East and North Africa, where 14 of 20 countries crim-
inalize blasphemy and apostasy; 
Whereas the rights and safety of religious minorities in the 
Middle East have increasingly come under attack over 
the last several years as a result of violence and insta-
bility throughout the region, with many religious minori-
ties being singled out and specifically targeted because of 
their faiths; 
Whereas more than 2 million people have been internally dis-
placed in Iraq or have become refugees in third party 
countries due to sectarian fighting or targeting by the Is-
lamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as the 
Islamic State (IS) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the 
Levant (ISIL); 
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Whereas, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring 
Center (IDMC), at least 469,000 people were displaced 
in June and July 2014 alone after ISIS took control of 
Iraq’s second city of Mosul and fighting spread across 
Ninewa and the governorates of Salah al Din, Diyala and 
Kirkuk, as well as other cities in Anbar governorate; 
Whereas ISIS has brutally massacred, murdered, and 
enslaved thousands of Christians, Shiites, Yazidis, Druze, 
Shabaks, Mandeans, and other religious minority groups 
that do not conform to its radical ideology, including re-
portedly kidnapping more than 100 Assyrian Christians 
in northeastern Syria; 
Whereas the Syrian Civil War, which has resulted in an esti-
mated 6,500,000 people being internally displaced, and 
more than 3,800,000 million registered refugees and tens 
of thousands more unregistered, has led to widespread 
sectarian violence committed by the Assad regime, ISIS, 
and other extremist and terrorist groups, and reports of 
religious cleansing and escalating attacks against Chris-
tian minorities; 
Whereas a 2014 United Nations report found that the Ira-
nian government continues to arrest and imprison Chris-
tians, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, and other religious minori-
ties simply because of their faith, including pastor Saeed 
Abedini, an American citizen who was imprisoned in 
2012 for alleged crimes related to his Christian faith; 
Whereas Coptic Christians have been targeted and violently 
attacked for their beliefs by groups such as the Muslim 
Brotherhood in Egypt, including a four-day series of at-
tacks in August 2013 that destroyed 38 Coptic churches, 
58 Coptic-owned houses, and 85 Coptic businesses, and 
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•HRES 139 IH 
by ISIS, which kidnapped and viciously murdered 21 
Copts in Libya in February 2015; 
Whereas Congress unanimously passed the International Reli-
gious Freedom Act in 1998, making it the official policy 
of the United States ‘‘to condemn violations of religious 
freedom, and to promote, and to assist other governments 
in the promotion of, the fundamental right to freedom of 
religion’’ and to ‘‘[stand] for liberty and [stand] with the 
persecuted, to use and implement appropriate tools in the 
United States foreign policy apparatus, including diplo-
matic, political, commercial, charitable, educational, and 
cultural channels, to promote respect for religious free-
dom by all governments and peoples’’; and 
Whereas the United States must show strong international 
leadership when it comes to the advancement of religious 
freedoms, liberties, and protections: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) strongly condemns violence against religious 
minorities in the Middle East and any actions that 
limit the free expression and practice of faith by 
these minorities; 
(2) reaffirms the commitment of the United 
States to promoting religious freedom and tolerance 
around the world and helping to provide protection 
and relief to religious minorities facing persecution 
and violence; 
(3) calls on the governments of the Middle East 
to uphold the internationally recognized human right 
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to freedom from religious persecution and to end all 
forms of violence and discrimination against reli-
gious minorities; and 
(4) urges the Obama Administration to appoint 
a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of 
Religious Minorities in the Near East and South 
Central Asia, as Congress called for in the Near 
East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act 
of 2014 (Public Law 113–161). 
Æ 
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