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against Christian and other non-Muslim citizens in the
southern part of the country, enforcing Shari’a (Islamic
law) against non-Muslim African Sudanese, torturing,
starving, killing, and displacing over 1,000,000 people,
and enslaving tens of thousands of women and children;
Whereas today in Sudan a human being can be bought for
as little as $15;
Whereas Christians in China are now experiencing the worst
persecution since the 1970’s;
Whereas there are more documented cases of Christians in
prison or in some form of detention in China than in any
other country;
Whereas both Evangelical Protestant house church groups
and Roman Catholics have been targeted and named ‘‘a
principal threat to political stability’’ by the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China;
Whereas in recent months, in separate incidents, 3 Chinese
Christian leaders were beaten to death by Chinese au-
thorities simply because of their religious activities;
Whereas 3 Christian leaders in Iran were kidnapped and
murdered during 1994 as part of a crackdown on the
Iranian Christian community;
Whereas severe persecution of Christians is also occurring in
North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Indonesia (including East
Timor), and in certain countries in the Middle East, to
name only a few;
Whereas religious liberty is a universal right explicitly recog-
nized in numerous international agreements, including
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
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Whereas Pope John Paul II recently sounded a call against
regimes that ‘‘practice discrimination against Jews,
Christians, and other religious groups, going even so far
as to refuse them the right to meet in private for pray-
er’’, declaring that ‘‘this is an intolerable and unjustifi-
able violation, not only of all the norms of current inter-
national law, but of the most fundamental human free-
dom, that of practicing one’s faith openly’’, stating that
this is for human beings ‘‘their reason for living’’;
Whereas the National Association of Evangelicals in January
1996 issued a Statement of Conscience and Call to Ac-
tion, subsequently commended or endorsed by the South-
ern Baptist Convention, the Executive Council of the
Episcopal Church, and the General Assembly of the Pres-
byterian Church, United States of America, in which they
pledged to end their ‘‘silence in the face of the suffering
of all those persecuted for their religious faith’’ and ‘‘to
do what is in our power to the end that the Government
of the United States will take appropriate action to com-
bat the intolerable religious persecution now victimizing
fellow believers and those of other faiths’’;
Whereas the World Evangelical Fellowship has declared Sep-
tember 29, 1996, and the last Sunday in September each
year thereafter, as an international day of prayer on be-
half of persecuted Christians, and that day will be ob-
served by numerous churches and human rights groups
around the world;
Whereas the United States of America since its founding has
been a harbor of refuge and freedom to worship for be-
lievers from John Winthrop to Roger Williams to William
Penn and a haven for the oppressed, and has guaranteed
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freedom of worship in this country for people of all
faiths;
Whereas historically the United States has in many instances
failed to intervene successfully to stop anti-Christian and
other religious persecution; and
Whereas in the past the United States has forcefully taken
up the cause of other persecuted religious believers and
the United States should continue to intervene on behalf
of persecuted Christians throughout the world: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) reaffirms its commitment to the Nation’s
historic devotion to the principles of religious liberty;
(2) unequivocally condemns the egregious
human rights abuses and denials of religious liberty
to Christians and other persecuted religions around
the world and calls upon the responsible regimes to
cease such abuses;
(3) strongly recommends that the President ex-
pand and invigorate United States international ad-
vocacy on behalf of persecuted Christians and other
persecuted religions and initiate a thorough exam-
ination of all United States policies that affect per-
secuted Christians;
(4) encourages the President to take organiza-
tional steps to strengthen United States policies to
combat religious persecution, including the creation
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of a special advisory committee for religious liberty
abroad which has an appropriate mandate and ade-
quate staff or to consider the appointment of a
White House special advisor on religious persecu-
tion; and
(5) applauds the actions of the World Evan-
gelical Fellowship in declaring an annual inter-
national day of prayer on behalf of persecuted Chris-
tians.
Attest:
Clerk.