Notes with concern the unwillingness of past Romanian governments to provide fair restitution of religious property confiscated by the former Communist government of Romania.
Calls on the Government of Romania to: (1) respect the constitutional rights of all religious communities to practice their religion in respectable locations and openly communicate their religious beliefs; (2) provide fair restitution, including agricultural and forestry land restitution, to all religious communities under Romanian law and in accordance with the Constitution of Rumania and all international agreements to which Romania is a party; and (3) amend Decree-Law 126/1990 to require that claims involving Romanian Greek Catholic properties be heard by an independent nonreligious commission, and to prevent the demolition of Greek Catholic churches.
Calls upon the Government of Romania, with respect to Romanian Law No. 501/2002, to: (1) amend the law to reflect the principle of "restitution in integrum" and restore full property ownership; (2) reduce to one year the period during which public institutions can continue to occupy confiscated religious properties; (3) provide compensation for demolished religious properties; (4) increase the rent paid to religious communities for properties which they cannot immediately regain use; (5) cease requiring religious communities to cover state maintenance costs for confiscated buildings; and (6) obligate local governments to cooperate in implementing Special Restitution Committee decisions.
[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 191 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 191
Urging the Government of Romania to recognize its responsibilities to
provide equitable, prompt, and fair restitution to all religious
communities for property confiscated by the former Communist government
in Romania.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 6, 2005
Mr. Lantos (for himself and Mr. Tancredo) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International
Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Urging the Government of Romania to recognize its responsibilities to
provide equitable, prompt, and fair restitution to all religious
communities for property confiscated by the former Communist government
in Romania.
Whereas the establishment of a Communist government in Romania after World War
II proved disastrous for established religious institutions;
Whereas a central element of persecution by the Communist government in Romania
was the uncompensated confiscation of real and personal property from
religious communities and from leaders of religious communities, and the
arrest and persecution of religious leaders;
Whereas 2,140 schools, hospitals, orphanages, and other charitable and civic
institutions were illegally confiscated under communism from the four
historic Hungarian churches (Roman Catholic, Hungarian Reformed,
Evangelical Lutheran, and Unitarian) and actual possession and use of
such properties has been denied in all but 30 cases;
Whereas Romania's wartime Fascist government began the process of confiscating
Jewish property in September 1940 and its postwar Communist government
reaffirmed most of these confiscations;
Whereas only a handful of Jewish communal properties have been restituted, often
with government agencies still using the facilities and paying no rent,
and over 1,000 communal properties remain in the possession of the
Government of Romania;
Whereas some Jewish claims have been willfully ignored for years, such as in the
case of agricultural land in Iasi, where municipal authorities continue
to sells parcels of this land;
Whereas on January 2, 1990, under terms of Decree-Law 126/1990, the 1948 decree
which dissolved the Romanian Greek Catholic Church was abrogated,
permitting Greek Catholics again to worship openly, and legal provisions
and procedures were established for the return of confiscated properties
that before 1948 belonged to the Greek Catholic Church;
Whereas the commission established under Decree-Law 126/1990 composed of
representatives of the Romanian Government and Greek Catholic Church has
proven ineffective in resolving disputed claims;
Whereas Romanian Law No. 501/2002, providing for the restitution of religious
properties, was adopted in June 2002 without consultation with the
affected religious communities, does not effectively meet the needs of
those communities, contains numerous legal deficiencies, and is delayed
in its implementation;
Whereas all of the religious communities have demanded the return of property
seized by the Romanian Communist government;
Whereas since 1990, post-Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe have
grappled with the question of how to redress these wrongful
confiscations of religious property, but Romania has lagged
significantly behind other post-Communist countries;
Whereas since the early 1990s, the United States Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe has monitored the property restitution and
compensation efforts being made by the governments of post-Communist
countries in Central and Eastern Europe;
Whereas with respect to the role of the Romanian courts in the restitution
process, the Chairman of the United States Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe observed: ``In the mid-1990s . . . hundreds of
court decisions in favor of property claimants were reversed by the
Supreme Court after they had become final and irrevocable judgments. The
European Court of Human Rights has recently ruled that these actions
violated the European Convention on Human Rights.''; and
Whereas Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that
``[e]veryone 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.'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) notes with concern the unwillingness of past
governments of Romania to recognize the responsibility to
provide equitable, prompt, and fair restitution of religious
property that was confiscated by the former Communist
government of Romania;
(2) calls on the Government of Romania--
(A) to respect the constitutional rights of
existence and practice of all religious communities to
celebrate and practice their own religion in
respectable locations, the right to propagate the given
beliefs, and the right to openly communicate the
beliefs and laws of the religion;
(B) to provide fair, prompt, and equitable
restitution to all religious communities under Romanian
law and in accordance with the Constitution of Romania
and all applicable international agreements to which
Romania is a party; and
(C) to provide restitution for the property rights
of all agricultural and forestry lands belonging to
religious communities;
(3) calls upon the Government of Romania to amend Decree-
Law 126/1990 to require that claims involving Romanian Greek
Catholic properties be heard by an independent, disinterested,
nonreligious commission, and calls upon the Government of
Romania to prevent the demolition of Greek Catholic churches
and to provide immediately for the security of all Greek
Catholic churches and other religious buildings dating from the
18th and 19th centuries; and
(4) with respect to Romanian Law No. 501/2002, calls upon
the Government of Romania--
(A) to amend the law to reflect the principle of
``restitution in integrum'' as urged by Resolution
1123/1997 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe and to restore full ownership of all property
and all rights emanating from such ownership;
(B) to amend the law to reduce the five-year period
to one year during which public institutions can
continue to occupy confiscated religious properties;
(C) to amend the law to include compensation,
according to an equitable formula, for demolished
religious properties;
(D) to increase to fair market value the amount of
rent paid to religious communities for properties of
which they cannot immediately regain use under law;
(E) to eliminate the practice of requiring monetary
compensation from religious communities to cover state
costs for maintenance and ``improvement'' of the
buildings since their confiscation in the 1940s; and
(F) to obligate local government officials, bodies,
and agencies to provide all necessary documentation and
cooperation to facilitate the implementation of
decisions issued by the central government's Special
Restitution Committee and to cease posing court
challenges and other obstacles against such
implementation.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on International Relations.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats.
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
Ordered to be Reported by Unanimous Consent.
Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats Discharged.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen moved to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, as amended.
Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H3729-3732)
DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H. Res. 191.
Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, as amended Agreed to by voice vote.(text: CR H3729)
On motion to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H3729)
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Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.