TEXT: HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 28 ON CHINA RIGHTS ABUSES
(Human Rights Subcommittee calls for resolution at Geneva)Washington -- House lawmakers gave a bipartisan shove to the Clinton Administration March 2 to take a stand against China's human rights abuses.
The House International Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights passed a resolution that scored the Chinese government for flagrant human rights violations and called on the United States to introduce a resolution on human rights abuses in China and Tibet at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
The resolution also calls upon the United States to "immediately contact other governments to urge them to co-sponsor and support such a resolution" at the meeting.
Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Smith (Republican of New Jersey) noted that the annual meeting in Geneva begins March 22 and, "as of today the Administration has not made up its mind" whether or not to introduce a resolution on China.
Critics of Administration policy toward China have voiced the opinion that, by waiting until the annual meeting is almost at hand, the Administration is ensuring that any resolution it might submit would be defeated.
A U.S.-sponsored resolution in Geneva "is the very least (the Administration) can do about this egregious situation," Smith said.
Among the human rights abuses cited in the resolution are "refusing the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights access to the Panchen Lama, Gendun Choekyi Nyima," and "operating a system of prisons and other detention centers in which gross human rights violations, including torture, slave labor, and the commercial harvesting of human organs from executed prisoners, continue to occur."
The resolution will go to the full committee later in the week.
Following is the text of the resolution:
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HCON 28 IH
106th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 28
Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States should introduce and make all efforts necessary to pass a resolution criticizing the People's Republic of China for its human rights abuses in China and Tibet at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 2, 1999
Mr. GILMAN (for himself, Mr. GEPHARDT, Mr. GEJDENSON, Mr. COX, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. LANTOS, Mr. PORTER, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. SALMON, Mr. CHABOT, and Mr. TANCREDO) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States should introduce and make all efforts necessary to pass a resolution criticizing the People's Republic of China for its human rights abuses in China and Tibet at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China has signed two important United Nations human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China recognizes the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which calls for the protection of the rights of freedom of association, press, assembly, religion, and other fundamental rights and freedoms;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China demonstrates a pattern of continuous, serious, and widespread violations of internationally recognized human rights standards, including violations of the rights described in the preceding clause and the following:
(1) restricting nongovernmental political and social organizations;
(2) cracking down on film directors, computer software developers, artists, and the press, including threats of life prison terms;
(3) sentencing poet and writer, Ma Zhe, to seven years in prison on charges of subversion for publishing an independent literary journal;
(4) sentencing three pro-democracy activists, Xu Wenli, Wang Youcai, and Qing Yongmin, to long prison sentences in December 1998 for trying to organize an alternative political party committed to democracy and respect for human rights;
(5) sentencing Zhang Shanguang to prison for ten years for giving Radio Free Asia information about farmer protests in Hunan province;
(6) putting on trial businessman Lin Hai for providing e-mail addresses to a pro-democracy Internet magazine based in the United States;
(7) arresting, harassing, and torturing members of the religious community who worship outside of official Chinese churches;
(8) refusing the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights access to the Panchen Lama, Gendun Choekyi Nyima;
(9) continuing to engage in coercive family planning practices, including forced abortion and forced sterilization; and
(10) operating a system of prisons and other detention centers in which gross human rights violations, including torture, slave labor, and the commercial harvesting of human organs from executed prisoners, continue to occur;
Whereas repression in Tibet has increased steadily, resulting in heightened control on religious activity, a denunciation campaign against the Dalai Lama unprecedented since the Cultural Revolution, an increase in political arrests, the secret trial and sentencing of former Middlebury College Fulbright Scholar and Tibetan ethnomusicologist Ngawang Choephel to 18 years in prison on espionage charges, and suppression of peaceful protests, and the Government of the People's Republic of China refuses direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives on a negotiated solution for Tibet;
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 during his July 1998 visit to the People's Republic of China, President Clinton correctly affirmed the necessity of addressing human rights in United States-China relations; and
Whereas the United States did not sponsor a resolution on China's human rights record at the 1998 session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that the United States --
(1) should introduce and make all efforts necessary to pass a resolution criticizing the People's Republic of China for its human rights abuses in China and Tibet at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; and
(2) should immediately contact other governments to urge them to cosponsor and support such a resolution.
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