U.S. House of Representatives Adopts H. Res. 191 Urging Romania to Accelerate Property Restitution to Religious Communities

The United States House of Representatives today sent a strong message to the government of Romania today on the need to accelerate restitution of properties illegally confiscated from religious communities under Communism. The House unanimously passed H. Res. 191, a bipartisan measure introduced by Congressmen Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Tom Tancredo (R-CA) on April 6, and co-sponsored by nineteen Members (listed below). On May 18, the International Relations Committee referred the resolution by unanimous consent to the full House for today's vote.

Today's vote is a major step forward in seeking to remedy the gross injustice suffered by the Jewish community, the four historic Hungarian churches and the Greek Catholic Church in Romania who, for the past 15 years, have been unable to fully exercise the right to freedom of religion, serve their constituents, and help build civil society. As H. Res. 191 notes "... 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."

Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Eliot Engel (D-NY) lead the 10 minute proceedings on H. Res. 191, which enumerates specific measures that the Romanian government can and must to take in order to insure full and equitable property restitution, namely to overcome legislative shortcomings and create an implementation process that has been protracted and marred by obstacles posed by local government officials, bodies and agencies, as well as court challenges. Representative Engel noted "active and continuing efforts" are required by the government of Romania, which as a member of NATO "has urgent and extra responsibilities" in this regard.

The Hungarian Human Rights Foundation has consistently monitored the status of 2,140 properties confiscated from the Roman Catholic, Hungarian Reformed, Lutheran and Unitarian Churches, the dominant religious affiliation of the 1.5 million-strong Hungarian minority in Romania. The Foundation regularly updates reports tracking Romanian legislation and implementation; testifies in Congress, and maintains a database on the status of all Hungarian-related properties (these materials can be accessed at http://www.hhrf.org/restitution). HHRF obtains information first-hand through a Property Restitution Working Group, which it initiated in January 2004, with regular conferences via computer. The Washington-based Hungarian American Coalition, and Hungarian-Americans nationwide were instrumental in drawing attention to H. Res. 191.

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