IV
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. RES. 588
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives with respect to viola-
tions in Western Europe of provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and
other international agreements relating to the freedom of individuals
to profess and practice religion or belief.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 21, 2000
Mr. SALMON (for himself, Mr. PAYNE, and Mr. GILMAN) submitted the fol-
lowing resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International
Relations
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives with
respect to violations in Western Europe of provisions
of the Helsinki Final Act and other international agree-
ments relating to the freedom of individuals to profess
and practice religion or belief.
Whereas under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, ‘‘Everyone has the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion; this right includes free-
dom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either
alone or in community with others and in public or pri-
vate, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, prac-
tice, worship and observance’’;
•HRES 588 IH
Whereas under Article 18 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, ‘‘No one shall be subject to co-
ercion which would impair his freedom to have or adopt
a religion or belief of his choice’’;
Whereas the Participating States of the Organization for Se-
curity and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), have under-
taken a series of specific commitments designed to ensure
the freedom of the individual to profess and practice reli-
gion or belief, including a commitment by those States to
ensure the full and effective exercise of the freedom of
thought, conscience, religion, or belief, in their laws and
regulations;
Whereas Principle VII of the Helsinki Final Act commits the
OSCE Participating States to ‘‘recognize and respect the
freedom of the individual to profess and practice, alone
or in community with others, religion or belief acting in
accordance with the dictates of his own conscience’’;
Whereas the 1989 Vienna Concluding Document commits the
OSCE Participating States to ‘‘take effective measures to
prevent and eliminate discrimination against individuals
or communities on the grounds of religion or belief in the
recognition, exercise and enjoyment of human rights and
fundamental freedoms in all fields of civil, political, eco-
nomic, social and cultural life’’;
Whereas in the 1991 Moscow Document, the OSCE Partici-
pating States ‘‘categorically and irrevocably declare that
the commitments undertaken in the field of the human
dimension . . . are matters of direct and legitimate con-
cern to all participating States and do not belong exclu-
sively to the internal affairs of the State concerned’’;
•HRES 588 IH
intended to persuade another person to a particular point
of view, whether philosophical or religious;
Whereas a 1996 French National Assembly report listed 173
organizations as suspect, including independent evan-
gelical Christian churches, Scientologists, Jehovah’s Wit-
nesses, and Unificationists and this report has been used
by both private and official entities to harass, intimidate,
deny employment, and deny commercial loans to listed
groups, and members of other religious groups, such as
Southern Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, the Catholic
Charismatic Renewal movement, Opus Dei, and the Soci-
ety of Jesus, have also been subject to recent discrimina-
tion and harassment at the hands of the French Govern-
ment;
Whereas the Parliament of Austria passed a law in 1997
which codified a tiered system of government recognition
and preferential treatment, including government funding
of religious groups, and which requires religious groups
seeking recognition to undergo government surveillance
for at least 10, or up to 20, years to prove legitimacy to
government officials;
Whereas the Austrian law on religion is cited as justification
for more repressive laws being proposed in nascent de-
mocracies further east, such as Hungary and Romania
and has been cited by Russian officials as justification for
an oppressive 1997 Russian religion law;
Whereas the Government of Austria has instituted a ‘‘sect’’
office which disseminates official propaganda on religious
groups not recognized by the government and leading to
a chilling effect on religious liberty;
•HRES 588 IH
Whereas the Parliament of Belgium issued a report in 1997
on ‘‘sects’’ with a widely circulated informal appendix
listing 189 groups as suspect, including many Protestant
and Catholic groups, Quakers, Hasidic Jews, Buddhists,
and members of the Young Women’s Christian Associa-
tion (YWCA), based on rumor and speculation found in
police files, and implicitly warning the public to avoid
such ‘‘dangerous’’ groups;
Whereas the Parliament of Belgium has established a govern-
ment ‘‘Advice and Information Center on Sects’’ which
disseminates official views on groups considered ‘‘sects’’
as defined by the list in the appendix to the 1997 Belgian
Parliament report;
Whereas some evangelical and charismatic Christian churches
have been targeted in parliamentary investigations in
France, Belgium, and Germany;
Whereas Jehovah’s Witnesses have been subjected in France
to various forms of harassment, including the denial of
the freedom to assemble for worship in facilities per-
mitted to be used by other faiths and are the targets of
governmental tax audits and punitive tax assessments,
continue to suffer religious discrimination and the eco-
nomic consequences of being categorized as a ‘‘dangerous
sect’’ by France’s Parliamentary Commission on Sects,
have been informed by German tax authorities that the
long-standing exemption from property taxation for their
houses of worship may be canceled in the near future,
have been labeled a ‘‘hard core sect’’ in Belgium by some
educators, continue to suffer from employment discrimi-
nation in Austria, France, and Germany, and are dis-
criminated against in foster parent proceedings in Ger-
many and in child custody matters in Belgium;
•HRES 588 IH
Whereas Muslims have been subjected to harassment, includ-
ing police brutality and attacks by extremist groups, par-
ticularly in Germany and France, and Muslim women are
subject to frequent discrimination and other forms of
abuse and harassment because they wear a head cov-
ering;
Whereas adherents to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints have been subject to continued acts of harass-
ment, including confiscation of religious materials, and
are prevented from freely sharing their beliefs in several
OSCE Participating States;
Whereas Scientologists have been subject to pervasive civil,
political, and economic discrimination, harassment, sur-
veillance, and orchestrated boycotts in Germany, France,
Belgium, and Austria; and
Whereas these actions by Western European governments
have contributed to intolerance by public and private ac-
tors who have discriminated in hiring practices or termi-
nated employment based on an individual’s religious af-
filiation: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) disapproves of the growing intolerance, discrimi-
nation, and violence directed against individuals and
groups because of their religion or belief, in violation of
the Helsinki Final Act and other international agree-
ments;
(2) expresses grave concern about the adoption of
laws and regulations by Participating States of the Or-
•HRES 588 IH
ganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) that—
(A) discriminate against minority or so-called
‘‘nontraditional’’ religions or beliefs; and
(B) limit the freedom of individuals to profess
and practice religion or belief, including laws re-
stricting religious speech and assembly; and
(3) calls upon the President and the Ambassador at
Large for International Religious Freedom to—
(A) raise violations of the freedom of thought,
conscience, religion, or belief, at every appropriate
level with representatives of countries that have
failed to implement their international commitments
and obligations in this regard;
(B) ensure that the United States makes full
use of existing meetings and structures of inter-
national organizations, including meetings of the
OSCE Permanent Council as well as periodic imple-
mentation review meetings on human dimension
issues, to raise violations of Participating States’
freely undertaken international commitments both
to protect and to provide for the full and effective
exercise of the freedom of thought, conscience, reli-
gion, or belief under their respective jurisdictions;
and
•HRES 588 IH
(C) support the inclusion of experts on reli-
gious liberty on United States delegations to appro-
priate meetings of international organizations, in-
cluding the OSCE.
Æ