[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 168 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 168

     Supporting respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive 
                        governance in Ethiopia.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 17, 2017

Mr. Cardin (for himself, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Durbin, 
   Mr. Cornyn, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Coons, Mr. Gardner, Mr. Booker, Mr. 
   Brown, Mr. Franken, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Merkley, and Mr. Warner) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                          on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
     Supporting respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive 
                        governance in Ethiopia.

Whereas the first pillar of the 2012 United States Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan 
        Africa is to strengthen democratic institutions, and the United States 
        Agency for International Development Democracy, Human Rights, and 
        Governance Strategy states that strong democratic institutions, respect 
        for human rights, and participatory, accountable governance are crucial 
        elements for improving people's lives in a sustainable way;
Whereas the third pillar of the 2012 United States Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan 
        Africa is to advance peace and security, including supporting security 
        sector reform;
Whereas democratic space in Ethiopia has steadily diminished since the general 
        elections of 2005;
Whereas elections were held in 2015 in which the ruling Ethiopian People's 
        Revolutionary Democratic Front and its affiliates claimed 100 percent of 
        parliamentary seats;
Whereas the 2016 Department of State Human Rights Report on Ethiopia cited 
        serious human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, killings, 
        rape, and torture committed by security forces as well as increased 
        restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of association, 
        politically motivated trials, harassment, intimidation, and arrest of 
        opposition members and journalists;
Whereas the Government of Ethiopia has repeatedly abused laws such as the 2009 
        Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to limit press freedom, silence independent 
        journalists, and persecute members of the political opposition;
Whereas laws such as the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation have been 
        used to restrict the operation of civil society and nongovernmental 
        organizations in Ethiopia across a range of purposes, particularly those 
        investigating alleged violations of human rights by governmental 
        authorities;
Whereas the case of the ``Zone 9 Bloggers'', whose arrest and detention in 2014 
        and subsequent trials on terrorism charges brought international 
        attention to the restrictions on press freedom in Ethiopia, is 
        indicative of the coercive environment in which journalists continue to 
        operate;
Whereas the arrest, detention, and demeaning treatment of hundreds of 
        dissidents, including leaders of legally registered opposition parties 
        such as Bekele Gerba, arrested in December 2015, and Merera Gudina, 
        arrested in November 2016, of the Oromo Federalist Congress, Yonatan 
        Tesfaye Regassa, arrested in December 2015, of the Semayawi Party (the 
        Blue Party), and the arrest and sentencing of Okello Akway Ochalla, 
        former governor of the Gambella region, are indicative of repressive 
        political conditions that prevail in the country;
Whereas the Ethiopian Human Rights Council reported last year at least 102 
        protestor deaths from November 2015 to February 2016 across 9 
        administrative zones, Human Rights Watch reports that Ethiopian security 
        forces have killed at least 500 peaceful protestors, and Amnesty 
        International reported that more than 800 protesters have been killed 
        since November 2015 and that number is likely higher;
Whereas, on October 9, 2016, the Government of Ethiopia imposed a far-reaching, 
        six-month state of emergency that restricted a broad range of actions, 
        including blocking mobile Internet access and social media 
        communications, undermining freedoms of association, expression, and 
        peaceful assembly, which led to the arrest of over 26,000 persons, and 
        which was extended by four months on March 30, 2017;
Whereas, on October 10, 2016, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom 
        of peaceful assembly and of association and the United Nations Working 
        Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances and on extrajudicial, 
        summary or arbitrary executions publicly called on the Government of 
        Ethiopia to allow an international commission of inquiry to investigate 
        the protests and the violence used against peaceful demonstrators;
Whereas former detainees report torture, lack of rations, and other forms of 
        serious abuse in detention facilities;
Whereas state-sponsored violence against citizens exercising their rights to 
        peaceful assembly in Oromia and elsewhere in the country, and the abuse 
        of laws to stifle journalistic and political freedoms, stand in direct 
        contrast to democratic principles and in violation of Ethiopia's 
        constitution;
Whereas serious abuses have been and continue to be committed in the Somali 
        regional state by Ethiopian federal and regional security forces, some 
        of which may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity;
Whereas to date, the Government of Ethiopia has held no one accountable for any 
        of the aforementioned abuses; and
Whereas, during President Barack Obama's historic visit to Addis Ababa in July 
        2015, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn expressed his government's 
        commitment to deepen the democratic process and work towards the respect 
        of human rights and improving governance, and noted the need to step up 
        efforts to strengthen institutions, but the Government of Ethiopia has 
        failed to take concrete actions to follow through with this commitment: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) condemns--
                    (A) killings of peaceful protesters and excessive 
                use of force by Ethiopian security forces;
                    (B) arrest and detention of journalists, students, 
                activists and political leaders who exercise their 
                constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and 
                expression through peaceful protests; and
                    (C) abuse of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to 
                stifle political and civil dissent and journalistic 
                freedoms;
            (2) urges protesters in Ethiopia to refrain from violence, 
        and to refrain from encouraging or accepting any and all 
        violence in demonstrations;
            (3) calls on the Government of Ethiopia to--
                    (A) fully lift the state of emergency;
                    (B) end the practice of excessive force by security 
                forces;
                    (C) grant the United Nations High Commissioner for 
                Human Rights and United Nations Special Rapporteurs 
                full access to conduct a comprehensive independent 
                examination of the state of human rights in Ethiopia;
                    (D) conduct a full, credible, and transparent 
                investigation into the killings and instances of 
                excessive use of force that took place as a result of 
                protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions and hold 
                security forces accountable for wrongdoing through 
                public proceedings, and to publicly release the 
                findings through a written report;
                    (E) release all dissidents, members of the 
                political opposition, activists, and journalists who 
                have been jailed, including those arrested for 
                reporting about the protests, for exercising 
                constitutional rights;
                    (F) respect the right to freedom of peaceful 
                assembly and guarantee freedom of the press and mass 
                media in keeping with Articles 30 and 29 of the 
                Ethiopian constitution;
                    (G) engage in open and transparent consultations 
                relative to its development strategy, especially those 
                strategies that could result in people's displacement 
                from land, offering those displaced from their land the 
                right to seek remedy or redress in courts and providing 
                a transparent means to access justice for those 
                displaced; and
                    (H) repeal proclamations that--
                            (i) can be used as a political tool to 
                        harass individuals or organizations that engage 
                        in peaceful political dissent or advocate for 
                        greater political freedoms; or
                            (ii) prohibit or otherwise limit funding 
                        for civil society organizations working on, 
                        supporting, or advocating for respect for 
                        constitutional rights, the rule of law, and 
                        protection of human rights;
            (4) calls on the Secretary of State to share with Congress 
        the results of a review of security assistance to Ethiopia in 
        light of these developments and to improve transparency with 
        respect to the purposes of such assistance to the people of 
        Ethiopia;
            (5) calls on the Administrator of the United States Agency 
        for International Development to immediately lead efforts to 
        develop a comprehensive strategy to support improved democracy 
        and governance in Ethiopia;
            (6) calls on the Secretary of State, in conjunction with 
        the Administrator of the United States Agency for International 
        Development, to improve oversight and accountability of United 
        States assistance to Ethiopia pursuant to expectations 
        established in the President's 2012 Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan 
        Africa;
            (7) calls on the President to apply appropriate sanctions 
        on foreign persons or entities responsible for extrajudicial 
        killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally 
        recognized human rights committed against any nationals in 
        Ethiopia as provided for in the Global Magnitsky Human Rights 
        Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114-
        328); and
            (8) stands by the people of Ethiopia, and supports their 
        peaceful efforts to increase democratic space and to exercise 
        the rights guaranteed by the Ethiopian constitution.
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