[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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