[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 20, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2600-S2601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CALLING UPON THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA TO END ITS HUMAN RIGHTS 
                     VIOLATIONS IN CHINA AND TIBET

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign 
Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 
22, and the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The senior assistant bill clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 22) urging the appropriate 
     representative of the United States to the United Nations 
     Commission on Human Rights to introduce at the annual meeting 
     of the Commission a resolution calling upon the People's 
     Republic of China to end its human rights violations in China 
     and Tibet, and for other purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. WARNER. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, 
the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the 
table, and, finally, any statements relating to the resolution be 
printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 22) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

[[Page S2601]]

                               S. Res. 22

       Whereas the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission 
     on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, provides a forum for 
     discussing human rights and expressing international support 
     for improved human rights performance;
       Whereas, according to the Department of State and 
     international human rights organizations, the Government of 
     the People's Republic of China continues to commit widespread 
     and well-documented human rights abuses in China and Tibet;
       Whereas the People's Republic of China has yet to 
     demonstrate its willingness to abide by internationally 
     accepted norms of freedom of belief, expression, and 
     association by repealing or amending laws and decrees that 
     restrict those freedoms;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     continues to ban and criminalize groups it labels as cults or 
     heretical organizations;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     has repressed unregistered religious congregations and 
     spiritual movements, including Falun Gong, and persists in 
     persecuting persons on the basis of unauthorized religious 
     activities using such measures as harassment, prolonged 
     detention, physical abuse, incarceration, and closure or 
     destruction of places of worship;
       Whereas authorities in the People's Republic of China have 
     continued their efforts to extinguish expressions of protest 
     or criticism, have detained scores of citizens associated 
     with attempts to organize a peaceful opposition, to expose 
     corruption, to preserve their ethnic minority identity, or to 
     use the Internet for the free exchange of ideas, and have 
     sentenced many citizens so detained to harsh prison terms;
       Whereas Chinese authorities continue to exert control over 
     religious and cultural institutions in Tibet, abusing human 
     rights through instances of torture, arbitrary arrest, and 
     detention of Tibetans without public trial for peacefully 
     expressing their political or religious views;
       Whereas bilateral human rights dialogues between several 
     nations and the People's Republic of China have yet to 
     produce substantial adherence to international norms; and
       Whereas the People's Republic of China has signed the 
     International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but has 
     yet to take the steps necessary to make the treaty legally 
     binding: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) at the 57th Session of the United Nations Human Rights 
     Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, the appropriate 
     representative of the United States should solicit 
     cosponsorship for a resolution calling upon the Government of 
     the People's Republic of China to end its human rights abuses 
     in China and Tibet, in compliance with its international 
     obligations; and
       (2) the United States Government should take the lead in 
     organizing multilateral support to obtain passage by the 
     Commission of such resolution.

     

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