[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2327 Engrossed in House (EH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2327

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
To direct the Secretary of State to provide assistance to civil society 
organizations in Burma that work to secure the release of prisoners of 
conscience and political prisoners in Burma, and assistance to current 
 and former prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Burma, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Burma Political Prisoners Assistance 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy 
        (NLD) pledged that they ``would not arrest anyone as political 
        prisoners'', but have failed to fulfill this promise since they 
        took control of Burma's Union Parliament and the Government's 
        executive branch in April 2016.
            (2) As of the end of April 2019, there were 331 political 
        prisoners in Burma, 48 of them serving sentences, 90 awaiting 
        trial inside prison, and 193 awaiting trial outside prison, 
        according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners 
        in Burma.
            (3) During its 3 years in power, the NLD Government has 
        provided pardons for Burma's political prisoners on six 
        occasions. State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi took steps to 
        secure the release of nearly 235 political prisoners in April 
        2016. On May 23, 2017, former President Htin Kyaw granted 
        pardons to 259 prisoners, including 89 political prisoners. On 
        April 17, 2018, current President Win Myint pardoned 8,541 
        prisoners, including 36 political prisoners. In April and May 
        2019, he pardoned more than 23,000 prisoners, including 20 
        political prisoners.
            (4) The Burmese security forces have used colonial-era laws 
        to arrest and charge political prisoners and prisoners of 
        conscience. These laws include but are not limited to 
        provisions of the Penal Code, the Peaceful Assembly and 
        Peaceful Procession Act, the 1908 Unlawful Associations Act, 
        the 2013 Telecommunications Act, and the 1923 Official Secrets 
        Act.
            (5) On December 12, 2017, Reuters reporters Wa Lone and 
        Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested and charged with violating the 
        Official Secrets Act, continuing a trend of restricting media 
        and free speech and attempting to thwart coverage of the events 
        in Rakhine State.
            (6) On September 3, 2018, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were 
        convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison. Time Magazine 
        included pictures of the two reporters on the cover of its 
        ``Person of the Year'' issue on December 10, 2018, as two of 
        the ``Guardians and the War on Truth''.
            (7) On May 6, 2019, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were released 
        after more than 500 days behind bars.
            (8) According to Burmese free speech organization Athan, 44 
        journalists and 142 activists since 2016 were charged with 
        colonial-era laws used to stifle dissent and restrict activist 
        groups and have faced trial.
            (9) Since December 2018, three Kachin activists were 
        sentenced to 6 months in prison in connection with peaceful 
        antiwar protests; a protester demonstrating against the 
        Myitsone Dam (a controversial Chinese-backed hydropower 
        project) was charged for peaceful demonstrations, and police 
        used excessive force to crack down on peaceful protesters in 
        Kayah State, with some of the demonstrators charged under 
        vaguely worded, repressive laws.
            (10) On August 18, 2017, Aung Ko Htwe was arrested because 
        he gave a media interview in which he described his experience 
        as a child soldier, including how the Burmese military abducted 
        and forcibly recruited him when he was 13 years old. He was 
        charged under Section 505(b) of Burma's Penal Code.
            (11) Although former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took 
        Burma off the State Department's list of the worst offenders in 
        the use of child soldiers in 2017, the Department reinstated 
        Burma to the list in 2018. According to the United Nations, the 
        Burmese military and ethnic guerrilla groups remain 
        ``persistent perpetrators' in the recruitment and use of 
        children in [Burma].''.

SEC. 3. CHILD SOLDIERS.

    It is the sense of Congress that no one should be jailed for freely 
expressing him or herself or for speaking against the use of child 
soldiers.

SEC. 4. PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY.

    It is the sense of Congress that Burma must immediately drop 
defamation charges against the three Kachin activists, Lum Zawng, Nang 
Pu, and Zau Jet, who led a peaceful rally in Mytkyina, the capital of 
Kachin State in April 2018, and that the prosecution of Lum Zawng, Nang 
Pu, and Zau Jet is an attempt by the Burmese authorities to intimidate, 
harass, and silence community leaders and human rights defenders who 
speak out about military abuses and the impact on civilian populations.

SEC. 5. PRESS FREEDOM.

    It is the sense of Congress that press freedom is a fundamental 
human right and should be upheld and protected in Burma and everywhere, 
and that Burmese authorities must immediately cease the arbitrary 
arrest, detention, imprisonment, and physical attacks of journalists, 
which have created a climate of fear and self-censorship among local 
journalists.

SEC. 6. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the policy of the United States that--
            (1) all prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in 
        Burma should be unconditionally and immediately released;
            (2) the Administration and the Department of State should 
        use all of their diplomatic tools to ensure that all prisoners 
        of conscience and political prisoners in Burma are released; 
        and
            (3) the Burmese Government should repeal or amend all laws 
        that violate the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful 
        assembly, or association, and ensure that laws such as the 
        Telecommunications Law of 2013 and the Unlawful Associations 
        Act of 1908, and laws relating to the right to peaceful 
        assembly, all comply with international human rights standards.

SEC. 7. POLITICAL PRISONERS ASSISTANCE.

    The Secretary of State shall continue to provide assistance to 
civil society organizations in Burma that work to secure the release of 
prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Burma, and 
assistance to current and former prisoners of conscience and political 
prisoners in Burma. Such assistance may include the following:
            (1) Support for the documentation of human rights 
        violations with respect to prisoners of conscience and 
        political prisoners.
            (2) Support for advocacy in Burma to raise awareness of 
        issues relating to prisoners of conscience and political 
        prisoners.
            (3) Support for efforts to repeal or amend laws that are 
        used to imprison individuals as either prisoners of conscience 
        or political prisoners.
            (4) Support for health, including mental health, and post-
        incarceration assistance in gaining access to education and 
        employment opportunities or other forms of reparation to enable 
        former prisoners of conscience and political prisoners to 
        resume a normal life.
            (5) The creation, in consultation with former political 
        prisoners and prisoners of conscience, their families, and 
        representatives, of an independent prisoner review mechanism in 
        Burma to review the cases of individuals who may have been 
        charged or deprived of their liberty for peacefully exercising 
        their human rights, review all laws used to arrest, prosecute, 
        and punish individuals as political prisoners and prisoners of 
        conscience, and provide recommendations to the Burmese 
        Government for the repeal or amendment of all such laws.

            Passed the House of Representatives September 24, 2019.

            Attest:

                                                                 Clerk.
116th CONGRESS

  1st Session

                               H. R. 2327

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

To direct the Secretary of State to provide assistance to civil society 
organizations in Burma that work to secure the release of prisoners of 
conscience and political prisoners in Burma, and assistance to current 
 and former prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Burma, 
                        and for other purposes.