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RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION AS A VIOLATION OF

HUMAN RIGHTS

Overview

TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1982

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,
Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., in room 2200, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Don Bonker (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. BONKER. The subcommittee will be in order.

This is the second of a series of hearings on religious persecution as a violation of human rights. Today we are continuing with the overview of the problem, looking at the definitional difficulty and the scope of this very important subject. In the next hearing, we will begin to look at the regions of the Middle East and Europe and specific examples of religious persecution in those areas.

Witnesses at the last hearing raised a number of interesting issues. For example, one witness said that the need to consider such a subject is comparatively new, and religious persecution will increase in the years to come because the real issue is the "struggle to maintain the freedom of people everywhere to think for themselves, to witness to God and to obey him, and to act morally according to their dictates of their conscience."

Another witness said that in order to define the parameters of religious freedom, three basic issues need to be addressed.

First, the right of members of religious faiths to practice their religion with a minimum of state interference; second, the prevention of discriminatory treatment by governments or individuals or groups on the ground of their membership in a particular faith; third, some requirement that the state make a good faith effort to suppress the manifestation by private persons or groups, of intolerance for others based on the holding of a different religion or belief.

He went on to say that the newly adopted document by the United Nations-the declaration on religious intolerance-is not a perfect instrument but it does address itself in a forthright way to each of the above matters.

A third witness indicated:

To exercise the right of religious liberty, the person must also be guaranteed the right of freedom of conscience, freedom of association, and freedom of speech. Therefore, the relationship between religion, liberty, and other rights is a reciprocal relationship. You cannot exercise the right of religious liberty if other human rights are not guaranteed.

As the previous shows, all the witnesses at the last hearing raised important issues for the consideration of the subcommittee. I am looking forward to hearing the testimony of our witnesses today. They are the Honorable John Porter, Representative from Illinois; Homer Jack, World Conference on Religion and Peace; and Prof. Dinah Shelton, University of Santa Clara. We will first hear from Representative Porter.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN EDWARD PORTER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS Mr. PORTER. I would like first to commend the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations for holding hearings on religious persecution as a violation of human rights, and second, to thank you, Mr. Chairman, and also Mr. Leach, the ranking minority member, for giving me the opportunity to testify today.

I request, because of time constraints and a conflicting committee schedule, that my written testimony be submitted for the record.

In my written testimony I have discussed the "Declaration of the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief" recently adopted by the U.N. General Assembly. In addition, I have cited four examples of religious persecution in the world today, the Baha'is in Iran, the Jews in Poland, the Jews in the Soviet Union, and the Pentecostals in the Soviet Union.

I strongly believe we in the United States who are so fortunate as to have religious freedom guaranteed must speak out and fight against religious persecution throughout the world. The American people have long cherished and represent the value of human liberty for all people, and we must work to prevent persecution and discrimination wherever it exists.

I would hope that the subcommittee would consider House Concurrent Resolution 249, legislation which I introduced on January 26, 1982, that has 88 cosponsors, that condemns religious persecution and asks the President to take every possible opportunity to oppose bigotry in the strongest possible terms. And I would like to submit a copy of the resolution for the record together with my written testimony.

I might say, Mr. Chairman, I was pleased to find Homer Jack here today, who served as a minister in my hometown of Evanston for many years at the time I was growing up there.

I have to return to my own Appropriations Committee and am disappointed I will not have an opportunity to hear Reverend Jack's own testimony on this vital matter.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

[Mr. Porter's prepared statement and attachment follow:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN EDWARD PORTER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

Mr. Chairman: I wish to express my appreciation for the opportunity to

testity before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations on the subject of religious persecution as a violation of human rights.

As you are well aware, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted on November 25, 1981, after two decades of work, a long-awaited document, entitled the "Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief."

This document points out that one of the basic principles of the Charter of the UN is the dignity and equality inherent in all human beings. All Member States pledged themselves to take joint and separate action in cooperation with the UN to promote and encourage universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenants on Human Rights both proclaim the principles of non-discrimination and equality before the law and the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief.

The Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief assumes that religion or belief is one of the fundamental elements in the concept of life.

This Declaration affirms in Article I that :

"Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

This right shall include freedom to have a religion or whatever

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."

In Article 2, it states: "No one shall be subject to discrimination by any State, institution, group of persons or person on grounds of religion or other beliefs."

Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, these rights do not universally exist. As with all human rights mere words on paper do not guarantee the right to religious freedom and the free association of individuals exercising that right. As you have heard in the opening statements and testimony before the Subcommittee religious persecution transcends political systems and regions of the world and appears in nations adhering to these international human rights covenants.

The A.D. survey on the state of religious freedom around the world concluded that the free exercise of religion is limited to at least a degree, almost everywhere; and that faithfulness to a religion can upon occasion carry heavy price tags of discrimination, pain, imprisonment

and death.

Mr. Chairman, I wish to illustrate the prevalence of religious persecution with four examples: Baha'i's in Iran, Jews in Poland, and Jews and Pentecostals in the Soviet Union.

Since the 1979 revolution in Iran, members of the Baha'i faith have been subjected to an unceasing storm of persecution and an avowed campaign to eliminate the Baha'i religion entirely.

The Baha'i faith, constituting the largest religious minority in the

country with 300,000 members, is the only group excluded from the protection

under the new Iranian constitution.

In the past three years, thousands of Baha'i's have been driven from

their homes and more than 100 of their leaders are known to have been murdered. In a concerted campaign by the Khomeini regime to eliminate the sect's leadership, Muslim militants interrupted a meeting of the Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly and led the eight members who were present away at gunpoint. Less than two weeks later their mutilated bodies were discovered in a Teheran cemetary for infidels. In January, six members of the local Baha'i assembly in Teheran were executed along with a woman who had allowed them to use her house for the meeting. The Khomeini regime has confiscated Baha'i properties, appropriated Baha'i owned corporations, closed their schools, fired them from jobs · and sacked their temples.

The Baha'is' holiest shrine, the House of the Bab, in Shiraz, was destroyed by a mob and the rubble was buried under a new highway. By one account, 20,000 Baha'i's have been driven from their homes and forced to live in tents in the mountains.

Allegations that the Baha'i faith is a political conspiracy serving the interests of foreign powers have been made by the Shiite clergy, the government in Iran and their representatives abroad. They contend that the Baha'i's were favored by the Shah's government and that they ran both the infamous secret police, SAVAK, and the government. Charges of promotion of prostitution, cooperation with Zionism, spying for imperial powers, corruption on earth and warring against God have been hurled

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