[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1231 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1231
Calling for an end to enforced disappearances in Asia and around the
world, and calling upon the United States to ratify the International
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 19, 2020
Mr. Sherman (for himself and Mr. Raskin) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and
in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Calling for an end to enforced disappearances in Asia and around the
world, and calling upon the United States to ratify the International
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance.
Whereas enforced disappearances constitute grave human rights violations and are
a crime under international law;
Whereas the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from
Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) was adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly on December 20, 2006, and entered into force on
December 23, 2010;
Whereas Article 2 of the ICPPED defines enforced disappearance as ``the arrest,
detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by
agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the
authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a
refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of
the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person'';
Whereas, since its creation in 1980, the United Nations Working Group on
Involuntary Enforced Disappearances brought up 57,891 cases to the
attention of 108 states, and 45,811 cases remain unresolved;
Whereas the fate and whereabouts of hundreds of thousands of victims of enforced
disappearances around the world continue to be unknown even decades
after the end of conflict and repressive regimes;
Whereas the failure to clarify the fate and whereabouts of those forcibly
disappeared causes continuing pain and suffering to survivors and
victims, and hinders societal reconciliation and justice;
Whereas clarifying the fate of those who have been forcibly disappeared is an
essential measure of transitional justice, alongside criminal
accountability, truthtelling initiatives, and reparations, all of which
assist societies in addressing legacies of mass atrocities, ensuring
accountability, and preventing the recurrence of conflict and
atrocities;
Whereas under the International Convention on Disappearances, every victim has
the right to know the truth regarding the circumstances of the enforced
disappearance, the progress and results of the investigation, and the
fate of the disappeared person;
Whereas relatives of victims of enforced disappearances and members of civil
society often face reprisals for seeking information and justice, and
such reprisals are often carried out under the pretext of security and
counterterrorism measures;
Whereas the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
was alarmed by the numerous reports about arbitrary detention of
possibly a million Uyghurs and Muslim minorities;
Whereas most Uyghur detainees are held without or on unknown charges in several
facilities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and the whereabouts
and physical condition of many remain unknown;
Whereas with the passage into law of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020
(Public Law 116-145), it is the policy of the United States to condemn
the mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and members of other Muslim
minority groups in Xinjiang and sanction those responsible for causing
the disappearances of persons and the prolonged detention of those
persons without charges and trial;
Whereas according to Amnesty International, Sri Lanka is home to one of the
world's highest number of enforced disappearances, with somewhere
between 60,000 to 100,000 people allegedly disappeared since the late
1980s;
Whereas, during the 26-year civil war ending in 2009 between government forces
and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, tens of thousands of Tamils
were forcibly disappeared by the police, military, and paramilitary
operatives;
Whereas the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances stated in 2020 that the second-largest number of
unresolved enforced disappearance cases in the world before the Working
Group involves Sri Lanka, with the Working Group having transmitted
communications to the Sri Lankan Government relating to over 12,700
disappearance cases, of which 6,117 were still outstanding, and that Sri
Lankan state authorities, ``have not replied in regard to any cases'';
Whereas in 2016 the Sri Lankan Government acknowledged having received at least
65,000 complaints of enforced disappearances since 1995;
Whereas Sri Lanka ratified the International Convention for the Protection of
All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in May 2016, and passed domestic
legislation criminalizing enforced disappearances in March 2018;
Whereas, according to a 2020 United Nations Special Rapporteur's report, ``no
observable progress has been made on pending cases, including habeas
corpus applications into the disappearance of Tamil Tigers and members
of their families who surrendered during the final days of the war'';
Whereas, in January 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated that ``missing
persons are actually dead'', without providing any evidence;
Whereas lawyers, human rights defenders, and victims involved in cases of
enforced disappearances face intimidation, harassment, and violence from
state and private actors, particularly since Rajapaksa became President;
Whereas the Government of Sri Lanka has promoted high-ranking military officials
suspected of forcibly disappearing persons and bearing responsibility
for war crimes, including Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, and has
failed to hold accountable other current military officials accused of
war crimes;
Whereas, since January 2020, the practice by the former government of issuing
interim relief to families of the disappeared, as recommended by the
Office on Missing Persons, was discontinued, putting families of
disappeared persons under further financial strain;
Whereas the Rajapaksa government has said it will no longer comply with the
United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1, supported by the
United States, committing Sri Lanka to truth, justice, and
accountability for violations of human rights;
Whereas Sri Lankan authorities are failing to effectively investigate and, where
there is sufficient evidence, prosecute those suspected of perpetrating
enforced disappearances, as recommended by the United Nations Working
Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances;
Whereas Tamil families of the disappeared have demonstrated tremendous courage
in conducting continuing protests, lasting over 1,300 days, to demand
answers from the Sri Lankan state, despite being met with threats,
intimidation, and harassment by state security forces;
Whereas the Prevention of Terrorism Act, a law that has been misused to
facilitate enforced disappearances, remains in use, despite the former
government's pledges to repeal it;
Whereas under the Government of former President Suharto, from 1967 to 1998,
countless Indonesians were victims of enforced disappearances conducted
by the military, police, intelligence agencies, and other state
authorities;
Whereas rather than investigate and hold those responsible for enforced
disappearances to account, the Indonesian Government has appointed
former generals allegedly involved in kidnappings and enforced
disappearances to senior posts in the Defense Ministry;
Whereas, during Indonesia's occupation of East Timor from 1975 to 1999, around
18,600 people were forcibly disappeared, as documented by the
independent Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) in
its 2005 report;
Whereas, in 2010, Indonesia signed the International Convention for the
Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance signaling its
recognition of its obligation to investigate ongoing disappearances;
however, it has yet to ratify the convention;
Whereas the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances has received 1,144 cases of allegations of enforced
disappearances from Pakistan between 1980 and 2019;
Whereas, in 2011, Pakistan established the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced
Disappearances (COIED) to ``trace the whereabouts of allegedly enforced
disappeared persons'' and ``fix responsibility on individuals or
organizations responsible'';
Whereas, since 2011, Pakistan's COIED has received more than 5,290 reported
cases of enforced disappearances carried out by state officials;
Whereas the majority of the victims of enforced disappearances in Pakistan are
Baloch, Pashtun, or Sindhi;
Whereas the Government of Pakistan has not adequately investigated and held
perpetrators of enforced disappearances responsible;
Whereas the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearance has described a ``culture of entrenched impunity''
regarding the practice of enforced disappearances in Pakistan;
Whereas the whereabouts and fate of over 2,000 victims of enforced
disappearances of citizens (Sindhis) of Sindh Province, Pakistan, remain
unsolved, including those of--
(1) Aqib Chandio, 20, a student, abducted for the second time on July
7, 2020;
(2) Gulam Rasul Shar and Bashir Ahmed Shar, brothers, abducted in
Karachi on August 16, 2020;
(3) Mehran Ali Mirani, 18, a student and shopkeeper, violently abducted
in Hyderabad, Sindh, on January 13, 2020; and
(4) Insaf Ali Dayo, a young tailor, abducted from his shop in Larkana,
Sindh, by a group that included uniformed military personnel on May 29,
2017;
Whereas disappeared people who have been released have received threats, or
threats to their family members, to prevent them from recounting their
experience to media or seeking justice;
Whereas Amnesty International and other internationally recognized human rights
organizations have called upon the Government of Pakistan to end
enforced disappearances against all individuals, including Sindhis, and
to either immediately release the victims of enforced disappearance or
ensure that they are brought promptly before a judge in a civilian court
to rule on the lawfulness of their arrest or detention; and
Whereas according to the United Nations, states have a duty to strengthen their
efforts, with the support of international human rights mechanisms, to
prevent enforced disappearances, to search for victims, and to increase
assistance to victims and their relatives: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) calls for justice for victims of enforced
disappearances and accountability for those bearing
responsibility for these crimes;
(2) calls for United States law enforcement to use all
available legal and statutory tools to ensure that alleged
perpetrators of enforced disappearances are held accountable in
United States courts and to ensure that the United States is
not a safe haven for human rights violators;
(3) urges all countries to abandon the unlawful practice of
enforced disappearances;
(4) calls upon the Department of State and the United
States Agency for International Development to continue to
support transitional justice measures and initiatives to assist
victims and survivors of enforced disappearances, including by
supporting national, international, and hybrid mechanisms to
clarify the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared;
(5) urges the United States to sign and ratify the
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from
Enforced Disappearance;
(6) calls upon the Government of China to--
(A) immediately release all persons held in
arbitrary detention in Xinjiang, unless there is
sufficient credible and admissible evidence that they
have committed an internationally recognized offense;
(B) repeal or amend all laws and regulations, and
end all related measures, that impermissibly restrict
the exercise of human rights by Uyghurs and other
ethnic minorities; and
(C) allow independent and unrestricted access to
Xinjiang for independent human rights monitors, and
make the whereabouts and condition of all detainees
known to their families;
(7) calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to--
(A) carry out effective and independent
investigations with a view of swiftly bringing to
justice those responsible for enforced disappearances;
(B) recommit the Government to complying with the
transitional justice goals and framework as articulated
in the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution
30/1, and implement measures to establish the
transitional justice mechanisms outlined in the
resolution;
(C) end the threats and intimidation against
families of the disappeared, journalists, human rights
defenders, and lawyers engaged in cases of enforced
disappearances;
(D) consult with victims and families of the
disappeared, release lists of those detained since 1978
under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and investigate
and release a list of all secret detention centers;
(E) resume the practice of issuing interim relief
to families of the disappeared, as recommended by the
Office on Missing Persons;
(F) repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act and stop
the misuse of laws, including the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to threaten,
harass and prosecute dissenters, journalists and
activists; and
(G) work with the United States Government to
pursue those responsible for atrocity crimes and
ensuring that the fate of all of those disappeared is
determined;
(8) calls upon the Government of Indonesia to--
(A) fulfill the Government's obligations under
international law;
(B) ensure that the military institution cooperates
with human rights and justice sector institutions,
including the Human Rights Commission;
(C) establish ad hoc human rights courts for
enforced disappearances in 1997-1998 and prosecute
those responsible for enforced disappearances and other
atrocities in Indonesia; and
(D) ratify the signed Convention for the Protection
of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; and
(9) calls upon the Government of Pakistan to--
(A) swiftly release all citizens of Pakistan who
have been arbitrarily abducted and detained;
(B) condemn the enforced disappearance of Sindhis,
of any religion or association, in Sindh Province;
(C) work to ensure any actions taken in pursuit of
legitimate security threats respect the human rights of
all people and adhere to international human rights
law; and
(D) criminalize the practice of enforced
disappearances.
<all>