Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof... --US Const., Amend. 1 Wednesday, December 20, 2006 Concern <http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2006/12/concern-expressed-over-romanias- new.html> Expressed Over Romania's New Religion Law Last week, Romania's Parliament passed and sent on to the President a controversial new Religion Law. A <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=889> Forum18 report says that deputies did not have the required five days to consider the report and amended text from the Chamber's Juridical and Human Rights committees before voting on the bill. The <http://www.cdep.ro/pls/proiecte/upl_pck.proiect?idp=7020> text of the bill is available in Romanian on the Parliament's website.
Yesterday, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), Chairman and Co-Chairman of the <http://www.csce.gov/> Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission), wrote Romanian President Traian Basecu urging him to return the bill to Parliament for further refinement. ( <http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentR ecord_id=530&ContentRecordType=P&ContentType=P&CFID=25126206&CFTOKEN=476 28480> CSCE Release) Saying that the current draft would be incompatible with Romania's OSCE religious freedom commitments, they continued: "The draft law's shortcomings include the creation of a tiered system of recognition which privileges some religions over others; the establishment of a high numerical threshold that a religious group must surmount in order to receive the most preferential legal status; and the establishment of a 12-year waiting period a religious group must undergo before receiving 'religion' status." <http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2006/12/concern-expressed-over-romanias- new.html> posted by Howard Friedman @ 9:55 AM Distinguished University Professor of Law Emeritus ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." (Carlo Goldoni) "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
