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 agreements relating... (Introduced in the House)
HRES 588 IH
106th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 588
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 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 following 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 agreements relating to the freedom of individuals
to profess and practice religion or belief. [fist
part in small letters without real interest]
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 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';
Whereas under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, `No one
shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of his choice';
Whereas the Participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
have undertaken a series of specific commitments designed to ensure the freedom of the individual to profess and
practice religion 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, economic, social and cultural life';
Whereas in the 1991 Moscow Document, the OSCE Participating States `categorically and irrevocably
declare that the commitments undertaken in the field of the human dimension . . . are matters of direct and legitimate
concern to all participating States and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the State concerned';
Whereas freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief is inextricably linked to the exercise
of other rights, including the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, the right to freedom of association
with others, and the right to freedom of expression, and the recognition that all persons are equal before the
law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law, including in employment;
Whereas the Department of State's annual reports on religious freedom and human rights have documented numerous
instances of government discrimination based on religion or belief in Western Europe, including discriminatory
acts against American members of several different religious denominations and beliefs;
Whereas the Office of the United States Trade Representative has listed Germany as a country engaged in discriminatory
trade practices because of `sect filter' guidelines issued to all federal government ministries and used by German
state and local governments, which have the potential to discriminate against United States firms in German procurement
decisions by permitting government entities to reject bids and immediately terminate contracts if a firm does not
sign a `sect filter' document attesting that the firm and its employees are not affiliated with certain religious
beliefs; [the only such "filter is against the criminal cult called scientology,
and has almost never had any effect, except for scientologists themselves, as they can't no longer hide "legally"
and infiltrate other companies]
Whereas a bill passed by the French National Assembly on June 22, 2000, contains repressive measures which would
have a chilling effect on the freedom religion and belief, including the dissolution of targeted religious associations,
the imprisonment of members of such groups, and infringement upon freedom of speech, including speech intended
to persuade another person to a particular point of view, whether philosophical or religious; [the
bill is not yet a law, and does certainly not inhibit such rights as freedom of speech, and does not impose any
prison or whatever sentence against righful members of religions - unless, it's evident, they are also criminally
convited and sentenced. So, the rpesentation done by Salmon and C° is a lie]
Whereas a 1996 French National Assembly report listed 173 organizations as suspect, including independent evangelical
Christian churches [the only supposed-to-be "church" listed is the 'ITN', linked
to the Greater Grace "church", itself an emanation of a group called The Bible Speaks , dismantled in
US Supreme Court!], Scientologists, Jehovah's Witnesses, 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 Society of Jesus, have also been subject to recent discrimination
and harassment at the hands of the French Government; [here, it's a complete LIE from
the congressmen: no Southern Baptists, no 7th day adventists, no catholic charismatic movement, no Opus Dei and
still lesser the Jesus Society (Jesuits) has ever suffered of discrimination there, nor been placed on the National
Assembly list of 173 cults, 80 % of them having no religious tenets at all. The allegations are more than ridicule;
they demonstrate that at least one of the three signatories is a liar, and most probably a scientologist himself;
even the scientologists have never dared to write such enormous lies about French position against criminal cults
unrespectful of the Human Rights and general laws]
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; [what's the problem with that? Does any govt have to accept that
any crazy guru or fraud declaring himself a religion, to say okay and admit that new fraud before some investigation
of the realities?]
Whereas the Austrian law on religion is cited as justification for more repressive laws being proposed in nascent
democracies further east, such as Hungary and Romania and has been cited by Russian officials as justification
for an oppressive 1997 Russian religion law; [I'd like to know if the US congressmen realize
here that democraccies can have their own defaults, and that any has; that if Austria felt that a russian law was
a justification for its own new law, certrainly it's not up to USA to criticize Austria and Russia and other Eastern
Eu countries for doing so: nonbody has to copy the US -very different from state to state! - laws.]
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; [It
does not: it gives informations, checked and rechecked. What's the matter?]
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 Association (YWCA), based on rumor and speculation found in police files,
and implicitly warning the public to avoid such `dangerous' groups; [same desinformation
as for France: most of the movements quoted are not even part of the 189 list, and in any case, the Belgian Deputies
have clearly indictaed t-hat the list contained no judgement of value or dangerosity. No Quakers, no Hasidic jews,
no buddhists (unless considering criminal groups like Hare Krishna as Buddhists, or Soka Gakkai commercial entreprise
as Buddhism]
Whereas the Parliament of Belgium has established a government `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 permitted 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 economic
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,
[that's incredible: "educators" have labeled it a hard core scet? Do the congressmen
realize in what sort of biased low-level journalism they are engaged?] continue to suffer from employment
discrimination in Austria, France, and Germany, and are discriminated against in foster parent proceedings in Germany
and in child custody matters in Belgium; [that's mostly untrue, and has nothing to do
with "religious" issue: it has to do with life issues, conditions of education etc. ]
Whereas Muslims have been subjected to harassment, including police brutality and attacks by extremist groups,
particularly in Germany and France, and Muslim women are subject to frequent discrimination and other forms of
abuse and harassment because they wear a head covering; [this short paragraph is a mere
pretext: most of the cases of headscarves were solved since years, and were mostly due to the refusal of such students
to follow the normal rules of study as well as the secularity of schools in France]
Whereas adherents to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been subject to continued acts of
harassment, including confiscation of religious materials, and are prevented from freely sharing their beliefs
in several OSCE Participating States; [where? when? I never heard of such harrassment";
worse, what's these "OSCE states? - it is attacking the whole Europe!]
Whereas Scientologists have been subject to pervasive civil, political, and economic discrimination, harassment,
surveillance, and orchestrated boycotts in Germany, France, Belgium, and Austria; and
[the great core of the topic... scientologists are complaining of 'discrimination'...
how many of them atre really discriminated? perhaps ten of them for the whole Eu. But meanwhile, for France only,
scientologists have still at least some ten suits against them, for such as frauds, extortion, abuse of weakness,
illegal medicine practice etc. Are those a refusal to let them "practice"
a "religion"??]
Whereas these actions by Western European governments have contributed to intolerance by public and private
actors who have discriminated in hiring practices or terminated employment based on an individual's religious affiliation:
Now, therefore, be it
