[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 21 (Thursday, February 11, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S589-S592]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CALLING FOR A RENEWED FOCUS ON THE GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC 
                  OF IRAN'S VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed to the 
consideration of S. Res. 415.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the 
resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 415) calling for a renewed focus on 
     the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran's violations 
     of internationally-recognized human rights as found in the 
     Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. KAUFMAN. Mr. President, today I rise to express support for the 
people whose voices have been silenced by the Government of Iran. For 8 
months, violence has been waged against peaceful protesters. Free 
speech, free expression, and a free press have been suppressed, and 
access to information and news has been limited through the jamming of 
international broadcasting and restrictions on the Internet.
  According to a joint statement released by the United States and the 
EU on Monday, since the flawed Iranian election in June, there have 
been large scale detentions and mass trials of peaceful demonstrators; 
threatened executions of protestors; intimidation of family members of 
those detained; and the continued denial of peaceful expression, 
contrary to universal norms of human rights.
  This statement was issued in advance of today's protests in Iran 
marking the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution, in anticipation 
of widespread violence and additional arrests which are occurring as we 
speak. These and other events in Iran represent blatant violations of 
international standards for human rights. This is why I have come to 
the floor today--to condemn the repression of the Iranian people, and 
to call on the government of Iran to bring its unconscionable behavior 
to an end.
  On December 23, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution condemning 
the government of Iran for ongoing human rights abuses and for 
suppressing freedom of speech, assembly, expression, and the press. 
This resolution, which I introduced along with Senators Lieberman, 
McCain, and others, reiterated the concerns that we also conveyed in 
the Victims of Iranian Censorship, or VOICE Act, which authorized 
funding for the development of technology to circumvent online 
censorship in Iran.
  Despite these and other international expressions of solidarity with 
the Iranian people, the government of Iran has become even more brutal 
in recent weeks. In a statement released on January 24, Human Rights 
Watch called the situation in Iran a ``human rights disaster.'' 
Protestors are not the only group which has been targeted. The Iranian 
authorities have also launched an aggressive campaign against the 
press.
  On Monday, Iranian state media reported the arrest of seven 
individuals charged with espionage for alleged ties to the U.S.-funded 
Farsi-language radio station, Radio Farda. These allegations and 
arrests coincide with a large-scale crackdown on independent media that 
has intensified in the past week. In the lead-up to today's 
demonstrations, Radio Farda broadcasts have been jammed, and there have 
been widespread service disruptions to the Internet and text message 
services. These and other government efforts have impeded the free flow 
of information, news, and basic means of communication.
  This is why I will join Senator Casey and others in introducing 
another resolution denouncing the atmosphere of impunity in Iran for 
those who employ intimidation, harassment, or violence to restrict 
basic freedoms of speech, expression, assembly, and the press. I am 
also proud to co-sponsor legislation introduced today by Senators 
McCain, Lieberman, Casey, Bayh, Durbin, Gillibrand, Kyl, Collins, 
Graham, and Brownback which gives the President the ability to impose--
at his discretion--sanctions against those Iranians who have committed 
human rights abuses or acts of violence against civilians engaged in 
peaceful political activity.
  Unfortunately, the grave and deteriorating human rights situation is 
not the only concern of the international community with regard to 
Iran. In a speech earlier today, the Iranian president declared Iran a 
``nuclear state'' due to its ongoing enrichment program. The UN has 
spoken in one voice--on three separate occasions--repudiating Iran's 
ongoing enrichment of nuclear material in violation of its 
international obligations.
  As the United Nations considers a fourth round of sanctions against 
Iran, the United States has imposed a new round of unilateral 
sanctions. Just yesterday, Treasury announced sanctions targeting the 
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, for its involvement in 
spearheading Iran's nuclear and missile programs. As the IRGC continues 
to consolidate control over the Iranian economy, including the 
telecommunications sector, it is crucial to ensure that the Government 
of Iran is held to account for its ongoing violations of international 
law and activities which have made it a growing threat to global 
security.
  The people taking to the streets in Iran are some of the most 
courageous in the world, and Congress will continue to reiterate its 
support for their right to have their voices heard. We will not sit 
idly by as the Government of Iran continues to deny its people 
essential freedoms and human rights, and we will put the Iranian 
Government--or any government which aims to silence its people--on 
notice that its behavior is unacceptable to the United States.
  As President Obama stated in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech:

       We will bear witness to the quiet dignity of reformers . . 
     . to the hundreds of thousands who have marched silently 
     through the streets of Iran. It is telling that the leaders 
     of these governments fear the aspirations of their own people 
     more than the power of any other nation. And it is the 
     responsibility of all free people and free nations to make 
     clear to these movements that hope and history are on their 
     side.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, first, I thank my friend, the Senator from 
Delaware, for his strong statement. I thank him for his support of 
freedom and democracy in Iran. I thank him for his longtime advocacy of 
human rights. I and others are pleased to have the opportunity to work 
with him in a common cause of human rights and democracy. I thank the 
Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. KAUFMAN. I thank the Senator.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have a colloquy 
with the Senator from Connecticut, Mr. Lieberman, and I am aware of the 
time constraints of being in morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, today is the 31st anniversary of the 
Islamic Republic. Unfortunately, it is a record that many would rather 
forget--31 years of economic potential lost, stolen by a corrupt elite. 
We know what has gone on over the last 31 years.
  Right now, as we speak, if anyone watching wants to turn on cable 
news,

[[Page S590]]

turn on FOX News, they will see videos coming out of Tehran of innocent 
people, young and old, being beaten and tortured and taken away to 
prison where unspeakable things are done to them as the people of Iran 
are standing up and demonstrating, again, their commitment, their 
courage, their sacrifice on behalf of a free and open democracy and 
society. We are watching as Iranian men and women, many not more than 
young boys and girls, are rounded up in their homes and dormitories, 
hauled away unlawfully to face torture and other abuses in the darkest 
corners of the country where the eyes of the international community 
struggle to see. These are unacceptable, unspeakable crimes that are 
being committed on the Iranian people, and we and the world must stand 
up against it. I appreciate being part of an effort, along with my 
friend from Connecticut--both sides, a bipartisan effort--to take 
action on the part of these people in Iran. Turn on FOX News, I say to 
my friends. They will see the videos coming out of Tehran of the 
brutality that is being inflicted on innocent Iranians who are trying 
to just have the God-given right to freedom and democracy.

  I thank my friend from Connecticut. This resolution we are submitting 
today has two parts. It would require the President to compile a public 
list of individuals in Iran who, starting with the Presidential 
election last June, are complicit in human rights violations against 
Iranian citizens and their families. No matter where in the world these 
abuses occur, I want to stress this will be a public list. You will 
know their names. You will know their faces. You will know what they 
have done. And we will make them famous. They are war criminals, and 
they should be taken to The Hague for trial. The bill would then ban 
these Iranian individuals from receiving U.S. visas and impose on them 
the full battery of sanctions under the International Emergency 
Economic Powers Act. That means freezing any assets and blocking any 
property they hold under U.S. jurisdiction, et cetera.
  This Nation has always stood for the human rights of people 
throughout the world. We stood up for the people behind the Iron 
Curtain. We provided Lech Walesa with a printing press. Now we need to 
help the Iranian people with the means to use the Internet to 
communicate, to resist.
  I hear back and forth that the Iranian people are without a leader. 
They have leaders. They have thousands and thousands of leaders who are 
in the streets right now demonstrating for freedom and putting their 
very lives at risk.
  I thank my colleague from Connecticut and ask him if he has 
additional comments on this disturbing reality that is unfolding before 
our eyes as we stand on the floor of the Senate.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Arizona, Mr. 
McCain, first for his leadership on this issue, which is consistent 
with a lifetime of support for America's freedom agenda, for the 
principles that are enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and 
that have always been at the center of our foreign policy when it has 
been at its best.
  This is a day of history. It is a day of history on the streets of 
Tehran and other cities in Iran on this 31st anniversary of the Iranian 
revolution.
  I heard a report today. It encapsulates what has happened to that 
revolution. Today, apparently, the granddaughter of Ayatollah Khamenei 
was arrested as a street protester. When they realized who she was, 
they immediately let her go.
  Mr. McCAIN. Will the Senator yield? I also heard that the wife of one 
of the opposition leaders was beaten in the streets today. Did the 
Senator hear that?
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I say to my friend, I did. That is the 
wife of the former Prime Minister, I believe, Mr. Mousavi. His wife was 
beaten on the streets of Tehran today.
  This is a day of history in Tehran, and I hope we can make it a day 
of history in the U.S. Congress because if this legislation which 
Senator McCain and I and a bipartisan group of other Senators introduce 
is adopted, it will be the first time we impose economic sanctions on 
Iranian leaders for the human rights abuses of their own people.
  We have come full circle. We have obviously been concerned about 
Iran's sponsorship of terrorism. It is still the No. 1 state sponsor of 
terrorism in the world, according to the State Department. Second, its 
nuclear weapons program menaces its neighbors in the world. But as so 
often happens with countries that threaten their neighbors in the 
world, that have no regard for human life, ultimately we come back to 
their core. And the core of the Iranian regime is rotten. It is rotten 
because it treats its own people not just with disrespect but with 
brutality. As my friend from Arizona has said, look at the television. 
Look at YouTube. Read the Internet, the text messages about what is 
happening on the streets of Iran as we speak today: remarkable 
demonstrations of courage by the people coming out to protest, to 
simply ask for their freedom, and unbelievable brutality against them 
for doing nothing more than asking for their universal human rights.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask my friend, I believe that last year 
an attempt was made to establish some kind of relationship and dialog 
with the Iranian Government--in other words, to have an unclenched 
fist. Will my friend comment on what success that has been?
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Yes, indeed. I thank the Senator from Arizona. 
President Obama adopted the policy of reaching out to the Iranian 
regime. Personally, I thought he did the right thing. What he got in 
return for his outstretched hand was a clenched fist.
  I think the only thing constructive that has come out of this attempt 
to engage the Iranians, to begin a new chapter, to give them a peaceful 
way to avoid conflict with the rest of the world, the only constructive 
result of it is that we see that the problem in the relations between 
the United States and Iran is not the United States, it is the 
oppressive, extremist regime in Tehran.
  I think it is clear that President Obama has not only been 
disappointed but grows impatient and, I will say from what I perceive, 
angered by what has happened. That explains the increasing move, 
including just in the last day or two, of the imposition of new 
sanctions on companies related to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps 
and individuals. This regime will not stop its nuclear weapons program, 
in my opinion, will not stop its support of terrorist killers, will not 
stop suppressing the human rights of its people unless it feels pain, 
unless it feels that perhaps its regime is in jeopardy. We can only do 
that now with tough sanctions, such as those that are proposed in the 
legislation we introduce today.

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I say to my friend from Connecticut, isn't 
it also true that there are certain elements who say: Don't do these 
things--the sanctions and actions we are trying to take--you only hurt 
the Iranian people. Isn't it true that the demonstrators in the streets 
of Tehran were chanting: Obama, Obama, are you with us or are you with 
them?
  What would be the effect on the Iranian people if we impose these 
sanctions?
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. The Senator from Arizona is very clear that these 
sanctions directed against the thugs in the Iranian Government who 
brutally suppress the rights of their own people will be very popular 
with the people of Iran. In my opinion, the economic sanctions that 
would be imposed in the legislation that passed the Senate unanimously 
about 10 days ago--those sanctions are tough, but if we have any hope 
of achieving an end to the Iranian nuclear weapons program through 
diplomacy, it has to be coupled with tough economic sanctions or else 
we will be left with no alternative but military action.
  There is a difference between the regime in Iran and the people of 
Iran. The people of Iran want a change in the regime, it is clear. 
There is nothing inherently at odds between the American people and the 
people of Iran. As a matter of fact, we have all sorts of histories and 
values and goals in common. The problem is the extremist, brutal, 
aggressive regime in Tehran, and the sooner it goes, the better.
  I hope the people of Iran hear this legislation we are introducing 
today, under the leadership of Senator McCain, as an expression of 
unanimity across party lines and ideological lines

[[Page S591]]

on behalf of the people of America that we stand with the people of 
Iran against the Government of Iran as it attempts to suppress the 
people.
  Mr. McCAIN. Finally, I would like to ask my friend, we were together 
in Munich over the weekend. The Foreign Minister of Iran came and 
spoke. I wish everyone in the world could have seen that performance--
one, a complete denial that they are on the path to acquisition of 
nuclear weapons, and, perhaps as important, a denial that any human 
rights abuses were taking place anywhere in that country. It was a 
remarkable display of hypocrisy and outright lying.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I was with Senator McCain. It was such 
a baldfaced lie because we see Mr. Motaki get up and say Iran is the 
most democratic regime in the entire Middle East region and beyond and 
says, with regard to our complaints and the Europeans' complaints about 
the suppression of the rights of the Iranian people, the execution of 
political demonstrators, the jailing of thousands of peaceful political 
protesters, that is the law and if they violated the criminal law, they 
would be punished for it. When somebody is so detached from the truth 
as we know it from what we see with our own eyes, it is hard to trust 
them otherwise.
  I wish to add a word. If we adopt this proposal, as I believe we can 
and will when the general Iranian sanctions bill comes back from 
conference, we will have taken a significant first step in the 
direction of penalties on the Iranian regime for human rights abuses of 
its own people.
  I want to use this, and I ask my friend if he agrees that the impact 
of this legislation would be magnified many times over if our allied 
governments around the world, particularly in Europe, which has a 
tradition of support for human rights, also joined us in adopting laws 
that impose targeted sanctions against human rights abusers in Iran? It 
does not require previous U.N. Security Council action. There is 
nothing stopping our Congress or the EU from imposing targeted human 
rights sanctions as quickly as possible. I ask my friend if that would 
not make the power of what we hope to do in Congress many times more 
effective against the tyrants in Tehran.
  Mr. McCAIN. I know we are running out of time, but I want to say to 
my friend that history does repeat itself. There was a time during the 
Cold War when Ronald Reagan spoke out and mentioned Natan Sharansky's 
name and he was beaten for it. People said he shouldn't have done that, 
but Ronald Reagan said: Take down this wall. People said that was 
provocative toward the Soviet Union. You know what Natan Sharansky 
said, after he was released from the prison? He said: Those words 
reverberated throughout the gulag and gave hope for democracy and 
freedom, and made them even more steadfast and encouraged them in the 
face of the brutality they underwent in the Soviet gulag.
  That is the same message we are sending to the Iranian people with 
this legislation. I hope we will enact it soon. We will not slack nor 
will we give up until the Iranian people have their God-given rights 
restored to them.
  Mr. President, I yield the remainder of my time.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, over the past several months, the 
Iranian government has carried out an unprecedented campaign of 
repression and violence against the Iranian people. Its targets have 
spanned everyone from religious clerics to women's rights advocates, as 
well as bloggers, students, photographers, children's advocates, human 
rights activists, journalists, and members of the political opposition. 
In fact, according to Reporters Without Borders, Iran now has more 
journalists in prison than any other country in the world.
  The targets of the Iranian regime's crackdown have suffered numerous 
and varied human rights abuses. Some have been dragged out of their 
homes and away from their families in the middle of the night, 
disappearing without charge and without process of law. Others have 
been beaten and tortured while in government custody, and in some 
cases, sexually abused. Still others have been prosecuted in mass 
trials by revolutionary courts and punished with draconian prison 
sentences, for no reason other than their political beliefs. And some 
have been executed. Human Rights Watch has rightly condemned Iran's 
crackdown ``a human rights disaster.''
  These abuses are ongoing. Just in the last few hours, despite the 
efforts of the Iranian government to control the flow of information 
from their country, videos have gone up on YouTube showing peaceful 
protesters on the streets of Iranian cities being violently broken up, 
and individual Iranian citizens brutally beaten, by members of the 
Iranian security forces.
  These human rights abuses are a clear violation of multiple 
international agreements signed by the Iranian government, such as the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
  To be clear, this isn't about the outside world dictating our values 
to Iran. This is about the failure of Iran's own leaders to live up to 
the international human rights obligations that they themselves 
voluntarily committed to, both through the international agreements 
they have signed and through their own constitution. All we are asking 
of Iran's leaders is that they respect their own laws. Unfortunately, 
it is increasingly clear that Iran's government does not respect its 
obligations--whether with regard to human rights record or its nuclear 
activities.
  The legislation that we are introducing today has a clear purpose; 
namely, to shine a bright light onto the human rights abuses being 
committed in Iran as we speak, and make clear to the people who are 
perpetrating them that there is going to be a cost to be paid for doing 
so.
  I am very encouraged that this legislation has already won the 
support of a broad bipartisan coalition of cosponsors--many of whom 
unfortunately could not be here today because of the weather. They 
include Senators Durbin, Kyl, Bayh, Collins, Casey, Brownback, 
Gillibrand, Graham, and Kaufman.
  I would especially like to thank my colleague Senator McCain for his 
leadership on this issue. As he mentioned, Senator McCain sought to 
attach an earlier version of this legislation as an amendment to the 
comprehensive Iran sanctions bill that was then on the floor of the 
Senate and that the Senate unanimously passed. Although we were unable 
to attach Senator McCain's amendment to the broader sanctions bill at 
that time for procedural reasons, I remain very hopeful that the human 
rights legislation we are introducing today will become part of the 
comprehensive Iran sanctions bill when the House and Senate meet in 
conference.

  And I hope that President Obama will aggressively apply these 
sanctions once they are signed into law.
  More broadly, I hope that the Obama administration will make human 
rights a centerpiece of our Iran policy in the days and weeks ahead. I 
understand that, on Monday, there will be what is called a ``Universal 
Periodic Review'' of Iran's human rights record at the U.N. Human 
Rights Council in Geneva, and that the administration hopes to use this 
event to shine a spotlight on the human rights abuses that are being 
committed there. I welcome that initiative, and appeal to other 
countries to support it as well.
  Finally, I would like to appeal to our international partners, in 
particular in the European Union, to join us in imposing these kinds of 
targeted sanctions against human rights abusers in Iran. We all know 
what the Iranian regime has been doing to its people, and I hope that 
Europeans in particular--given the importance they attach to human 
rights--will not turn a blind eye to these abuses. We don't need to 
wait for a U.N. Security Council resolution to do this. There is 
nothing stopping the EU from imposing target human rights sanctions 
right now.
  Mr. President, this is a piece of legislation that has significance 
if it is adopted, in effect, we hope, but this is also our way--the 10 
of us who have sponsored this legislation, and I would guess every 
Member of the Senate when it comes to a vote will vote for it--to say 
to two groups of people, first, the government in Iran, that we see 
what you are doing, we know what you are doing, it is intolerable, it 
is unacceptable, and you will be punished for it; and secondly, to say 
to the people of Iran--who have the courage to be in the streets 
protesting and asking for

[[Page S592]]

the rights their government is supposed to give them according to 
international treaties that Iran itself has signed--we are with you.
  The struggle for freedom and justice against tyranny is often a long 
one, it is always a hard one, but history tells us that, in the end, 
freedom and justice prevail. That means the people of Iran will prevail 
over the totalitarian government that now brutally rules them.
  I thank the Chair, I thank my friend from Arizona for his leadership, 
and I yield the floor.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution 
be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be 
laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any 
statements related to the resolution be printed in the Record.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 415) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 415

       Whereas the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has 
     violated international standards for human rights by using 
     violence to disperse peaceful assemblies by its own citizens;
       Whereas the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran 
     suppressed peaceful commemorations by members of Iran's Green 
     Movement at the anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution on 
     February 11, 2010;
       Whereas the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran's 
     sustained campaign of violence against Iranian citizens who 
     have peacefully protested the irregularities in the flawed 
     Iranian presidential elections of June 12, 2009 has 
     demonstrated to the world that the present Iranian regime is 
     fully capable of widespread violence against its own 
     citizens;
       Whereas the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran 
     currently has 65 journalists and bloggers imprisoned, more 
     than any single country in the world, according to Reporters 
     without Borders and in the past week arrested 10 journalists;
       Whereas the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has 
     restricted access to the internet, including its recent 
     announcement to permanently block Google's Gmail service;
       Whereas Iranian citizen's right to due process has been 
     violated, with the judiciary detaining government critics and 
     religious minorities, and ordering executions of peaceful 
     demonstrators;
       Whereas the use of arbitrary detention and the infliction 
     of cruel and degrading punishments by the Iranian authorities 
     are in direct violation of Articles 7, 9 and 10 of the 
     International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 
     as well as Articles 22 (the right to human dignity), 36 
     (Sentencing in accordance with the law), 38 (prohibition of 
     torture) and 39 (the rights of arrested persons) of the 
     Iranian Constitution.
       Resolved, That the Senate of the United States:
       (1) pays tribute to the courageous advocates for democracy 
     and human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran who are 
     engaged in peaceful efforts to encourage democratic reform;
       (2) notes that it is the right of the people of the Islamic 
     Republic of Iran to peacefully assemble and to express their 
     opinions and aspirations without intimidation, repression, 
     and violence;
       (3) supports freedom of speech in the Islamic Republic of 
     Iran as elsewhere and the ability of journalists and bloggers 
     to report without repression by government authorities;
       (4) desires that the men and women of Iran be able to enjoy 
     due process in the Iranian judicial system including the 
     right to a fair trial;
       (5) expresses serious concern over the Government of the 
     Islamic Republic of Iran's brutal suppression of its citizens 
     through censorship, imprisonment, and continued acts of 
     violence;
       (6) denounces the atmosphere of impunity in the Islamic 
     Republic of Iran for those who employ intimidation, 
     harassment, or violence to restrict and suppress freedom of 
     speech, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and 
     freedom of the press;
       (7) urges the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to 
     fully observe the ICCPR, which has been ratified by the 
     Islamic Republic of Iran and states, ``Everyone shall have 
     the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include 
     freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of 
     all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing 
     or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media 
     of his choice''.
       (8) calls upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to abide by the 
     resolutions adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, in 
     particular the resolution on the situation of human rights in 
     the Islamic Republic of Iran of December 2009;
       (9) communicates deep concern that, despite the Islamic 
     Republic of Iran's standing invitation to all thematic 
     special procedures mandate holders, it has not fulfilled any 
     requests from those special mechanisms to visit the country 
     in four years and has not answered numerous communications 
     from those special mechanisms, and strongly urges the 
     Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to fully cooperate 
     with the special mechanisms, especially the Special 
     Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, 
     the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or 
     degrading treatment or punishment, the Special Rapporteur on 
     the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of 
     opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur on the 
     situation of human rights defenders, the Working Group on 
     Arbitrary Detention and the Working Group on Enforced or 
     Involuntary Disappearances;
       (10) encourages the UN Human Rights Council to fully 
     examine these issues during its Universal Periodic Review of 
     the Islamic Republic of Iran on February 15, 2010.

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would briefly say I appreciate this being 
accepted. I spoke to Senator McCain earlier today. He and Senator 
Lieberman gave speeches on the Senate floor today regarding human 
rights in Iran. They are very timely and I appreciate their statements.

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