[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 142 (Saturday, August 7, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6013-S6014]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 342--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE 
  PRACTICE OF POLITICALLY MOTIVATED IMPRISONMENT OF WOMEN AROUND THE 
WORLD AND CALLING ON GOVERNMENTS FOR THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF WOMEN WHO 
                        ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS

  Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Markey, Mr. 
Merkley, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Van Hollen, Mrs. Shaheen, and Mr. Coons) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 342

       Whereas Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human 
     Rights guarantees the right to life, liberty, and security of 
     person, Article 9 of the Declaration prohibits arbitrary 
     arrests or detentions, and Article 18 of the Declaration 
     guarantees the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and 
     religion;
       Whereas women around the world face enormous risks when 
     seeking to advance human rights and pursue progress for their 
     communities, including--
       (1) discriminatory policies and attitudes;
       (2) repressive governments;
       (3) abusive authorities; and
       (4) critical threats to their health, especially amid the 
     COVID-19 pandemic;
       Whereas women activists around the world are being unjustly 
     or wrongfully detained in order to silence their voices and 
     end their activism;
       Whereas women journalists are being unjustly or wrongfully 
     detained for speaking truth to power and exposing corruption 
     and abuses by governments and other authorities;
       Whereas according to the United Nations Office of the High 
     Commissioner for Human Rights, many women detainees face 
     inhumane and degrading treatment upon arrest, including 
     threats of rape, invasive body searches, and humiliations of 
     a sexual nature, and once unjustly imprisoned, many women are 
     subjected to sexual violence and other forms of torture at 
     the hands of security forces;
       Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic presents a severe threat to 
     women who are detained unjustly and who are often housed in 
     overcrowded prisons with limited access to medical care, 
     which can convert unjust prison sentences into death 
     sentences for vulnerable, detained women;
       Whereas the People's Republic of China has waged a brutal 
     campaign to suppress political dissent and vibrant ethnic 
     minority communities;
       Whereas the People's Republic of China has suppressed and 
     detained human rights defenders and journalists, including--

[[Page S6014]]

       (1) Li Yuhan, a human rights lawyer jailed for representing 
     cases concerning freedom of belief and access to government 
     information, who has been subject to verbal abuse and other 
     mistreatment while held in extended pre-trial detention; and
       (2) Zhang Zhan, a citizen-journalist sentenced to 4 years 
     in prison for reporting on COVID-19 in Wuhan;

       Whereas the People's Republic of China has subjected 
     Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang to mass 
     surveillance, forced labor, forced birth control, forced 
     sterilization, coerced abortion, sexual assault, rape, unjust 
     or wrongful detainment, and extrajudicial internment, 
     including--
       (1) Rahile Dawut, a professor of traditional Uyghur culture 
     and recipient of the 2020 ``Courage to Think'' award, who has 
     been held incommunicado since her disappearance in December 
     2017;
       (2) Gulmira Imin, a former Uyghur-language website 
     administrator and writer, who is serving out a 19 year 
     sentence for her alleged role in organizing demonstrations in 
     2009 and her online criticism of Chinese repression of the 
     Uyghurs; and
       (3) Nigare Abdushukur, who was sentenced to 19 years 
     imprisonment after calling her brother in Germany to tell him 
     about their mother's detention;

       Whereas the People's Republic of China has targeted 
     Tibetans for peaceful political or cultural expression, 
     including--
       (1) Bonkho Kyi, who was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment 
     for organizing a picnic celebration for His Holiness the 
     Dalai Lama's 80th birthday; and
       (2) Yeshe Choedron, who was sentenced in 2008 to 15 years 
     imprisonment for allegedly contacting the Tibetan government 
     in exile after participating in the 2008 Lhasa protests;

       Whereas the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong has been 
     subjected to harsh government persecution at the direction of 
     the People's Republic of China, and activists have been 
     unjustly jailed, including Quinn Moon, who was among 12 
     activists captured while trying to flee persecution in Hong 
     Kong and was subsequently sentenced to 2 years in prison;
       Whereas, in Iran, human rights defenders have been 
     steadfast in their advocacy despite repeated abuse and arrest 
     by authorities, including currently detained human rights 
     activists--
       (1) Nasrin Sotoudeh, who spoke out against the death 
     penalty and laws forcing women to wear hijabs and who has 
     recently been returned to prison after a medical leave 
     despite serious health conditions; and
       (2) Atena Daemi, a human rights activist who has been 
     sentenced to an additional 2 years in prison and 74 lashes 
     for participating in a peaceful sit-in protest in Evin prison 
     during her initial 5-year sentence;
       Whereas Iranian authorities have also recently arrested and 
     imprisoned environmentalists working for the Persian Wildlife 
     Heritage Foundation, including Sepideh Kashani and Niloufar 
     Bayani, who previously worked for the United Nations 
     Environment Programme, subjecting them to torture and threats 
     of sexual assault;
       Whereas Turkey is the world's second worst jailer of 
     journalists, with 37 journalists imprisoned in 2020 alone, 
     including--
       (1) Hatice Duman, owner and editor at Atilim, which 
     published editorials condemning President Erdogan's policies; 
     and
       (2) Aysenur Parildak, journalist for Zaman;
       Whereas the Government of Egypt has attempted to quash 
     dissent by jailing and abusing human rights defenders, 
     including Sanaa Seif, who was detained while filing a 
     complaint at the Public Prosecutor's office regarding her 
     violent assault outside Cairo's Tora prison, which houses her 
     brother, who is a political activist;
       Whereas Belarusian authorities, as a means of silencing 
     popular protests, have attacked and jailed journalists, human 
     rights defenders, and members of civil society, including--
       (1) Katsiaryna Bakhvalova and Darya Chultsova, 2 members of 
     the media covering anti-Lukashenko protests who were 
     sentenced to 2 years in prison for ``organizing and preparing 
     actions that grossly violate public order'';
       (2) Yulia Slutskaya, founder of a nongovernmental 
     organization that investigates government persecution of 
     journalists covering protests;
       (3) Maryia Kalesnikava, a prominent Belarusian opposition 
     leader abducted and charged with incitement to undermine 
     national security for her pro-democracy advocacy; and
       (4) Marfa Rabkova, a human rights defender targeted for 
     observing demonstrations and documenting evidence of law 
     enforcement officials torturing peaceful protestors;
       Whereas Saudi Arabian women's rights and human rights 
     activist Maya'a al-Zahrani remains wrongfully imprisoned;
       Whereas the Government of Nicaragua has detained human 
     rights defenders Maria Esperanza Sanchez and Karla Vanessa 
     Escobar Maldonado in terrible conditions for their 
     participation in demonstrations in 2018;
       Whereas Senator Leila de Lima remains unjustly imprisoned 
     in the Philippines for her vocal criticism of extrajudicial 
     killings carried out during President Duterte's ``war on 
     drugs'';
       Whereas the Government of Vietnam has jailed civil and 
     human rights activist Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh and journalist 
     Pham Thi Doan Trang for their peaceful work to preserve and 
     expand rights afforded to Vietnamese citizens; and
       Whereas in Eritrea, political dissident Aster Fissehatsion 
     and dual United States-Eritrean national Ciham Ali have been 
     held incommunicado without charge or trial since 2001 and 
     2012, respectively: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) supports women who are being unjustly or wrongfully 
     detained around the world;
       (2) affirms that a government should never detain its 
     citizens for exercising the rights of freedom of assembly, 
     association, and speech;
       (3) calls on governments that are unjustly or wrongfully 
     detaining women for exercising their fundamental rights to 
     immediately and unconditionally release these political 
     prisoners; and
       (4) urges the United States Government, in all its 
     interactions with foreign governments--
       (A) to raise individual cases of women political prisoners; 
     and
       (B) to press for the immediate release of such political 
     prisoners.

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