[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 119 (Tuesday, July 16, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S4870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONDEMNING BRUNEI'S DRAMATIC HUMAN RIGHTS BACKSLIDING
Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 139, S. Res.
198.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 198) condemning Brunei's dramatic
human rights backsliding.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution, which had been reported from the Committee on Foreign
Relations, with an amendment to strike all after the resolving clause
and insert the part printed in italic, and with an amendment to strike
the preamble and insert the part printed in italic, as follows:
Whereas Brunei has been led since 1967 by one of the
world's longest-reigning monarchs, Sultan Haji Hassanal
Bolkiah;
Whereas Brunei gained independence in 1984;
Whereas emergency powers in place in Brunei since 1962
allow the sultan to govern with few limitations to his
authority;
Whereas, according to the United States Department of State
2018 Human Rights Report, human rights issues in Brunei
included censorship, interferences with the rights of
peaceful assembly and freedom of association, crimes
involving violence or threats targeting homosexuality, and
exploitation of foreign workers, including through forced
labor;
Whereas Brunei's media are neither free nor diverse, with
broadcasting dominated by the state and private media owned
or controlled by the royal family;
Whereas homosexuality has been illegal in Brunei, carrying
a punishment of up to ten years in prison;
Whereas in 2013, the Government of Brunei announced it was
imposing a revised penal code that included harsher
punishments of death by stoning for adultery and homosexual
relations;
Whereas international condemnation resulted in a delay in
carrying out the provisions;
Whereas, in March 2019, the Government of Brunei announced
it was going forward with the penal code to take effect April
3, 2019;
Whereas the penal code includes, among other things, death
by stoning for male same-sex relations, adultery, and
blasphemy, amputation of limbs for theft, whipping for female
same-sex relations, and criminalization of exposure of
children to the beliefs and practices of differing religions;
Whereas, on April 2, 2019, the Department of State said
Brunei's new penal code and associated penalties run
``counter to its international human rights obligations
including with respect to torture or other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment'';
Whereas, on April 18, 2019, the European Parliament adopted
a resolution strongly condemning Brunei for introducing
``retrograde'' laws, calling for their immediate repeal,
urging that Brunei uphold its international obligations under
``international human rights instruments, including with
regard to sexual minorities, religious minorities and non-
believers,'' and suggesting visa bans and asset freezes
should the penal code not be repealed;
Whereas the United Nations and international human rights
organizations have denounced the penal code, arguing it
amounts to torture and a violation of human rights;
Whereas United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Michelle Bachelet urged Brunei to repeal the penal code,
noting the punishments proscribed as ``cruel, inhuman, and
degrading'' and calling the code a ``serious setback for
human rights protections'';
Whereas Human Rights Watch stated, ``Brunei's new penal
code is barbaric to the core, imposing archaic punishments
for acts that shouldn't even be crimes. . . . Sultan Hassanal
should immediately suspend amputations, stoning, and all
other rights-abusing provisions and punishments.'';
Whereas Amnesty International stated, ``Brunei's Penal Code
is a deeply flawed piece of legislation containing a range of
provisions that violate human rights. . . . As well as
imposing cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments, it
blatantly restricts the rights to freedom of expression,
religion and belief, and codifies discrimination against
women and girls.''; and
Whereas the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS) Executive Director Michel Sidibe stated that the
implementation of this discriminatory penal code will ``drive
people underground and out of reach of life-saving HIV
treatment and prevention services,'' and UNAIDS and the
United Nations Population Fund noted these kinds of laws
``increase stigma, and give license to discrimination,
violence, and harassment'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) condemns the Government of Brunei's further
criminalization and barbaric punishments regarding sexual
orientation, adultery, and relations between persons of the
same sex;
(2) calls on the Government of Brunei to expeditiously
repeal the 2013 penal code; and
(3) supports the withdrawal and denial of United States
visas for any Brunei official responsible for passage or
implementation of such penal code and related laws until they
are repealed.
Mr. THUNE. I further ask that the committee-reported substitute
amendment to the resolution be agreed to; that the resolution, as
amended, be agreed to; that the committee-reported amendment to the
preamble be agreed to; that the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; and
that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the
table with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The committee-reported amendment, in the nature of a substitute, was
agreed to.
The resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
The committee-reported amendment to the preamble was agreed to.
The preamble, as amended, was agreed to.
The resolution (S. Res. 198), as amended, and the preamble, as
amended, were agreed to.
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