WASHINGTON, June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe announced the forthcoming hearing:
Religious Freedom in Western Europe: Religious Minorities and Growing
Government Intolerance
Tuesday, June 8
10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Room 2212, Rayburn House Office Building
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C.
Open to Members, Staff, the Public and the Press

The purpose of this hearing by the Helsinki Commission is to examine religious freedom issues in Western Europe. There is an alarming trend toward religious intolerance in Western Europe exemplified by the investigations carried out by the French, Belgian, and German parliaments into the activities of minority religious groups. These parliaments have instituted commissions to investigate ``dangerous sects'' and ``psycho-groups,'' often listing groups in order to warn the public against them. Some groups that were listed have reported difficulty in renting public halls, being subjected to negative media reports, inability to obtain commercial bank loans, and the loss of employment by some of their members because of affiliation with a listed group.

Likewise, Austria, Belgium and France have or are in the process of establishing ``sect'' offices or ``advice and information centers'' which disseminate government information on minority groups. These government offices have the clear ability to contribute to a climate of intolerance depending on the manner in which they collect and distribute information.
Meanwhile, in other OSCE countries such as Greece, government policies impermissibly restrict religious freedom for minority faiths.

Scheduled to appear are:
* Administration Witness (invited)
* Willy Fautre, Human Rights Without Frontiers
* Dr. T. Jeremy Gunn, US Institute for Peace
* Rev. Louis DeMeo, Grace Church of Nimes (France)
* Alain Garay, Esq., human rights lawyer and counsel for Jehovah's Witnesses.
* Others invited, not yet confirmed

SOURCE: Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe