[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 539 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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116th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 539
Supporting the rights of the people of Iran to determine their future,
condemning the Iranian regime for its crackdown on legitimate protests,
and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 11, 2020
Mr. Cardin (for himself, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Kaine, and Ms. Rosen)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Supporting the rights of the people of Iran to determine their future,
condemning the Iranian regime for its crackdown on legitimate protests,
and for other purposes.
Whereas, on January 8, 2020, the Government of Iran shot down Ukraine
International Airlines Flight 752, lied about its culpability, and then
admitted to downing the plane on January 11 after evidence was made
public by other sources;
Whereas all 167 passengers and 9 crewmembers aboard Ukraine International
Airlines Flight 752 died in the resulting crash;
Whereas passengers were mostly citizens of Iran, but also included citizens of
Canada, Ukraine, Great Britain, Afghanistan, and Sweden;
Whereas, during January 11 through 13, 2020, protesters gathered across Iran to
denounce lying and incompetence by regime leadership with respect to the
airline shootdown;
Whereas video clips of protests from January 11 through 13, 2020, showed
protestors chanting against Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'i and the
IRGC;
Whereas video clips suggest Iranian authorities deployed tear gas and live
ammunition against protestors in January 2020;
Whereas earlier antigovernment protests in Iran began on November 15, 2019, and
rapidly spread to dozens of Iranian cities in 29 of Iran's 31 provinces,
in the most significant antigovernment protests in Iran since the Green
Movement demonstrations in 2009 and 2010;
Whereas the protests began in response to an announced increase on the price of
fuel, and protesters expressed numerous economic grievances, while also
calling for the structural reform of the political system and condemning
current and former Iranian leaders;
Whereas reports indicate that Iranian security forces responded to protests with
lethal force, killing hundreds of demonstrators and arresting thousands
more;
Whereas reports indicate that the Government of Iran authorities have, in many
instances, refused to return victims' bodies to their families and that
security forces have removed bodies from morgues and transferred them to
unknown locations;
Whereas, on November 16, 2019, Iranian authorities began implementing a near-
total shutdown of internet services, stopping nearly all means of online
communications for people inside Iran to prevent the sharing of images
and videos of deadly violence being used by security forces;
Whereas, on November 16, 2019, Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli
suggested that the Iranian regime would no longer show ``tolerance''
toward the protesters;
Whereas, on November 17, 2019, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i
called the demonstrators ``villains'', suggested that protests were
incited by foreign enemies and domestic insurgents, and ordered Iranian
security services to ``implement their duties'' to end the protests;
Whereas, on November 18, 2019, the IRGC deployed to the southwestern city of
Mahshahr, which had been taken over by demonstrators, and engaged in
mass repression over a period of 4 days, reportedly killing as many as
100 people;
Whereas multiple United States laws provide authorities to designate and
sanction elements of the Iranian regime for its repressive conduct,
including those involved in significant corruption or serious human
rights abuses, including--
(1) the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment
Act of 2010 (22 U.S.C. 8501 et seq.);
(2) the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 (22
U.S.C. 8701 et seq.);
(3) the Countering Iran's Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017 (22
U.S.C. 9401 et seq.); and
(4) the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F of
title XII of Public Law 114-328; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note);
Whereas the Iranian regime was implicated in a terrorist plot targeting
gatherings of Iranian dissidents in Paris in June 2018 and in Albania in
March 2018;
Whereas, in August 2018, the United States Government arrested 2 Iranian
nationals who later pleaded guilty for acting on behalf of the Iranian
regime to conduct covert surveillance in the United States against
officials of the Iranian opposition for a target package which,
according to the Department of Justice complaint, may have included
``apprehension, recruitment, cyber exploitation, or capture/kill
operations'';
Whereas the Iranian regime has routinely violated the human rights of Iranian
citizens, including by implementing ongoing, systematic, and serious
restrictions of freedom of peaceful assembly and association and freedom
of opinion and expression, including the continuing closures of media
outlets, arrests of journalists, and the censorship of expression in
online forums such as blogs and websites;
Whereas, on November 22, 2019, the United States imposed sanctions on Iran's
Minister of Information and Communications Technology for his role in
shutting down internet access in Iran;
Whereas the Department of State's most current Human Rights Report noted that
the Government of Iran levied ``severe restrictions on free expression,
the press, and the internet, including censorship, site blocking, and
criminalization of libel; substantial interference with the rights of
peaceful assembly and freedom of association, such as overly restrictive
nongovernmental organization (NGO) laws; egregious restrictions of
religious freedom; restrictions on political participation;'' and that
there is ``widespread corruption at all levels of government'';
Whereas, on November 18, 2019, the Office of the German Chancellor stated, ``It
is legitimate and deserving of our respect when people courageously air
their economic and political grievances, as is currently happening in
Iran . . . We urge the government in Tehran to respect freedom of
assembly and expression.'';
Whereas, on November 20, 2019, the French Foreign Ministry stated, ``France is
following the demonstrations taking place in Iran with concern. It
expresses its deep concern at reports that a large respect its
international human rights obligations.'';
Whereas, on December 2, 2019, a statement from Amnesty International confirmed
that ``extensive video footage verified and analyzed by Amnesty
International's Digital Verification Corps shows security forces
shooting at unarmed protesters who did not pose any imminent risk'';
Whereas, on December 6, 2019, United Nation's High Commissioner for Human Rights
Michelle Bachelet said, ``Verified video footage indicates severe
violence was used against protesters, including armed members of
security forces shooting from the roof of a justice department building
in one city, and from helicopters in another,'' and added that the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has also
received footage showing security forces ``shooting to kill'';
Whereas, on December 8, 2019, a Declaration by the European Union High
Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell
Fontelles stated, ``A growing body of evidence indicates that despite
repeated calls for restraint, the Iranian security forces'
disproportionate response to recent demonstrations has led to high
numbers of deaths and injuries. For the European Union and its Member
States, the widespread and disproportionate use of force against
nonviolent protestors is unacceptable.'';
Whereas, on December 16, 2019, Amnesty International further reported that
``[eyewitness testimony] suggests that, almost immediately after the
Iranian authorities massacred hundreds . . . participating in nationwide
protests, [the authorities] went on to orchestrate a wide-scale
clampdown designed to instill fear and prevent anyone from speaking out
about what happened'';
Whereas, on January 17, 2020, the United States designated IRGC General Hassan
Shahvarpour, Khuzestan Province's Vali Asr Commander, for his
involvement in gross violations of human rights against protestors
during the November 15 through 18, 2019, protests in Mahshahr, Iran;
Whereas Iran is a member of the United Nations, voted for the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and is a state party to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, done at New York December 19,
1966;
Whereas, during February 2020 parliamentary elections, against the backdrop of
regime interference, disqualification of reformist and moderate
candidates, and anger over crackdowns on protesters, the majority of the
Iranian people chose not to vote, making turnout the lowest in Iran's
post-1979 history; and
Whereas the Iranian regime has a long history of violent repression of dissent,
including--
(1) in 1988, carrying out the barbaric mass executions of thousands of
political prisoners--including teenagers and pregnant women--by hanging and
firing squad for refusing to renounce their political affiliations and, in
some cases, for possessing or distributing political reading material;
(2) in 1999, brutally suppressing a student revolt that was one of the
largest mass uprisings up until that point in the country since 1979, in a
crackdown since referred to as ``Iran's Tiananmen Square'';
(3) following voting irregularities that resulted in the 2009 re-
election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, cracking down on peaceful political
dissent from wide segments of civil society in a cynical attempt to retain
its undemocratic grip on power; and
(4) beginning in December 2017, and continuing for several months after
protests erupted over economic conditions in more than 80 cities,
confronting protestors with excessive force that resulted in at least 25
deaths and 4,000 arrests: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) stands with the people of Iran that are engaged in
legitimate protests against an oppressive, corrupt regime;
(2) supports the right of Iranians to peacefully assemble,
without fear of persecution and violence, whether in Iran or
internationally;
(3) respects the proud history and rich culture of the
Iranian nation and fully supports efforts by the people of Iran
to promote the establishment of basic freedoms that build the
foundation for the emergence of a freely elected and
transparent republic;
(4) condemns the Iranian regime's downing of Ukrainian
International Airlines Flight 752 and its repeated lying to the
people of Iran and around the world about its responsibility
for the disaster;
(5) condemns the Iranian regime for its record of brutal
repression against peaceful protests;
(6) condemns the Iranian regime's serious human rights
abuses against Iranians, significant corruption, and
destabilizing activities abroad;
(7) commends the statements of support for protesters from
the United States and key United States allies;
(8) calls on all democratic governments and institutions to
support the ability of the people of Iran to live in a free
society such that they can exercise their human rights and
fundamental freedoms;
(9) demands that the Iranian regime abide by its
international obligations with respect to human rights and
civil liberties, including freedoms of peaceful assembly and
speech, including for members of the press;
(10) urges the President to work to convene emergency
sessions of the United Nations Security Council and the United
Nations Human Rights Council to condemn the ongoing human
rights violations perpetrated by the Iranian regime and
establish a mechanism by which the Security Council can monitor
such violations;
(11) encourages the United States Government to do
everything in its power to ensure the Iranian people have free
and uninterrupted access to the internet;
(12) calls on telecommunications companies to reject
requests by the regime to cut off the Iranian people from
social media and other communications platforms; and
(13) urges the President and the Secretary of State to work
with the international community to signal through future
multilateral and bilateral discussions that the Government of
Iran's human rights violations are unacceptable.
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