[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 262 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 262

 To support the empowerment of women and urge countries to #FreeThe20.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 22, 2015

Ms. Ayotte (for herself, Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Collins, Mrs. Shaheen, Mrs. 
Feinstein, Mrs. McCaskill, Mrs. Fischer, Ms. Baldwin, Mrs. Gillibrand, 
 Ms. Murkowski, Ms. Heitkamp, Ms. Stabenow, Ms. Mikulski, Ms. Warren, 
Mrs. Capito, Mrs. Ernst, Mrs. Boxer, Ms. Hirono, Ms. Cantwell, and Mrs. 
 Murray) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 To support the empowerment of women and urge countries to #FreeThe20.

Whereas, in 1995, representatives from 189 governments and tens of thousands of 
        organizations met in Beijing at the Fourth World Conference on Women for 
        the purpose of empowering women;
Whereas, at the Fourth World Conference on Women, the governments represented 
        produced the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a roadmap 
        seeking to advance gender equality and women's rights;
Whereas, on September 27, 2015, the United Nations will host the ``Global 
        Leaders' Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment: A 
        Commitment to Action'' at the United Nations headquarters in New York 
        City;
Whereas, at this high level conference, governments will be invited to make 
        commitments to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women;
Whereas the ongoing imprisonment by many countries of innocent women is contrary 
        to Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the Beijing 
        Declaration and Platform for Action;
Whereas some countries attending the conference at the United Nations imprison 
        women for exercising universal human rights; and
Whereas, on September 1, 2015, the United States Permanent Representative to the 
        United Nations began a government-wide campaign to highlight the cases 
        of women prisoners held unjustly around the world, including--

    (1) Wang Yu of China, who--

    G    (A) after being assaulted attempting to board a train in 2008, was 
sentenced to 2\1/2\ years in prison for assault;

    G    (B) has taken on the cases of clients who other lawyers fear 
representing;

    G    (C) has been harassed, threatened, and smeared in the state-run 
media; and

    G    (D) was detained again on July 9, 2015;

    (2) Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan, who was--

    G    (A) arrested in December 2014 in a crackdown on civil society 
activists and journalists; and

    G    (B) sentenced on September 1, 2015, to 7\1/2\ years in prison 
after alleging government fraud;

    (3) Bahareh Hedayat of Iran, a student activist and campaigner for 
women's rights, who--

    G    (A) was arrested December 31, 2009, and charged with several 
``offenses'' including interviews with foreign media and insulting the 
President and leader;

    G    (B) was sentenced in May 2010 to--

        G    (i) 6 months in prison for ``insulting the president'';

        G    (ii) 2 years in prison for ``insulting the leader''; and

        G    (iii) 5 years in prison for ``gathering and colluding to 
commit crimes against national security'';

    G    (C) received an additional 6 months in prison for having written a 
letter in December 2010 encouraging students to continue struggling 
peacefully for freedom; and

    G    (D) was given an additional 2-year prison sentence on August 28, 
2015;

    (4) Blen Mesfin, Meron Alemayehu, and Nigist Wondifraw of Ethiopia, who 
were imprisoned after being charged with inciting violence during anti-
Islamic State in Libya demonstrations in Addis Ababa in April 2015;

    (5) Gao Yu of China, a 71-year-old veteran journalist, who was 
initially arrested in April 2014 as authorities detained dozens of rights 
activists and dissidents ahead of the 25th anniversary of the June 4 
Tiananmen Square Massacre and was sentenced to 7 years in jail on April 17, 
2015, on charges of ``leaking state secrets overseas'';

    (6) Aster Yohannes of Eritrea, the wife of an imprisoned political 
activist, who--

    G    (A) was arrested in 2003 upon returning from the United States;

    G    (B) was never publicly accused of a crime or tried in a court of 
law; and

    G    (C) is of unknown whereabouts;

    (7) Matlyuba Kamilova of Uzbekistan, who--

    G    (A) was jailed in September 2010 for alleged drug possession;

    G    (B) was arrested under highly suspicious circumstances in the 
midst of efforts to expose police corruption; and

    G    (C) remains in prison;

    (8) Leyla Yunus of Azerbaijan, who--

    G    (A) was arrested with her husband in August 2014 during a broad 
crackdown on civil society activists;

    G    (B) was sentenced to an 8\1/2\-year prison term on August 13, 
2015;

    G    (C) was named by France as a Chevalier of the National Order of 
the Legion of Honour in 2013 in recognition of her human rights work; and

    G    (D) received the Polish Prize of Sergio Vieira de Mello in 2014;

    (9) Phyoe Aung of Burma, who was arrested in March 2015, with over 100 
participants, for leading protests advocating for reform to the education 
system of Burma;

    (10) Ta Phong Tan of Vietnam, who was arrested in 2011 for ``anti-state 
propaganda'' for writing online articles alleging government corruption and 
was sentenced in 2012 to 10 years in prison with 2 years of house arrest to 
follow;

    (11) Liu Xia of China, who--

    G    (A) has been under house arrest since the 2010 announcement that 
her husband received the Nobel Peace Prize;

    G    (B) is confined to her Beijing apartment without internet or phone 
access;

    G    (C) is allowed only weekly trips to buy groceries and visit her 
parents;

    G    (D) is allowed to visit Liu Xiaobo once a month; and

    G    (E) reportedly suffers from heart problems and severe depression;

    (12) Sanaa Seif of Egypt, who was sentenced in October 2014, with 23 
other people, to 3 years in prison for conducting a peaceful demonstration 
without permission, a sentence which was reduced to 2 years in December 
2014;

    (13) Judge Maria Lourdes Afuini Mora of Venezuela, who--

    G    (A) was imprisoned in December 2009 on charges of corruption and 
abuse of authority for releasing an imprisoned banker, was placed on house 
arrest until June 2013, and, according to President Chavez, ``must pay for 
what she has done''; and

    G    (B) is on conditional release awaiting trial and is forbidden to 
leave the country or speak publicly;

    (14) Naw Ohn Hla of Burma, who--

    G    (A) is the co-founder of the Democracy and Peace Women Network and 
a prominent land rights and political prisoners advocate;

    G    (B) was sentenced to a 4-year-and-4-month term in prison on May 
15, 2015, for protesting, in front of the Chinese Embassy in Rangoon, the 
deadly police crackdown at the Chinese company Wanbao's Letpadaung copper 
mine; and

    G    (C) was, on June 29, 2015, given an additional 6-month prison term 
with hard labor for conducting a peaceful prayer service in 2007 protesting 
against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest;

    (15) Nadiya Savchenko of Russia, who--

    G    (A) is a member of the parliament of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada, 
and a helicopter pilot in the Ukrainian military;

    G    (B) was seized in Ukraine by Russian-backed separatists in 2014; 
and

    G    (C) was illegally transferred to Russian custody, where she 
remains;

    (16) serving as a composite for prisoners of concern worldwide, an 
estimated 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, including men, women, and 
children, who are detained in the brutal political prison camps of North 
Korea where starvation, forced labor, executions, rape, sexual violence, 
forced abortions, and torture are commonplace and whose offenses, according 
to defectors, include--

    G    (A) burning old currency or criticizing the currency revaluation 
of the Government;

    G    (B) sitting on newspapers bearing the picture of Kim Il Sung or 
Kim Jong Il;

    G    (C) mentioning the limited formal education of Kim Il Sung; and

    G    (D) defacing photographs of the Kims;

    (17) Bui Thi Minh Hang of Vietnam--

    G    (A) is an active anti-China demonstrator and vocal supporter of 
human rights and democracy, with a particular focus on helping victims and 
their families;

    G    (B) was arrested on February 12, 2014 and is serving a 3-year 
sentence for ``disrupting public order''; and

    G    (C) was detained without trial for 6 months at a ``reeducation 
center'' prior to her arrest in February of 2014; and

    (18) Rasha Chorbaji of Syria--

    G    (A) who was arrested trying to obtain a passport in 2014 with 3 of 
her children because her husband opposed the regime during the revolution; 
and

    G    (B) whose children were taken by the Government of Syria and 
placed in an orphanage, and whose husband drowned in the Mediterranean Sea 
while fleeing Syria: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) recognizes the 20th anniversary of the Beijing 
        Declaration and Platform for Action, as well as the high level 
        conference in September 2015 at the United Nations to empower 
        women;
            (2) recognizes that many women will not be able to 
        participate in the dialogue about the conference in September 
        2015 because they are imprisoned unjustly;
            (3) reiterates support for efforts to empower women and 
        secure universal human rights for women;
            (4) reminds governments attending the conference that 
        unjustly imprisoning women is inconsistent with the Beijing 
        Declaration and does not empower women;
            (5) welcomes the release of Ta Phong Tan of Vietnam on 
        September 19, 2015, whose release was called for as part of the 
        campaign;
            (6) calls for the immediate release of the women mentioned 
        in the preamble of this resolution, most of whom remain 
        wrongfully imprisoned or under house arrest; and
            (7) encourages conference attendees to fulfill previous 
        commitments related to the empowerment of women and to commit 
        to meaningful and concrete steps to advance women's rights, for 
        the betterment of all people.
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