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[Page S1759]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, on International Women's Day, we reflect
on the enormous contributions women make worldwide to their communities
and their countries across every aspect of society including justice,
politics, culture, peacebuilding, the economy, and national security.
On this day, we also recognize and recommit to fighting on behalf of
the many women whose voices governments seek to silence. Around the
world, women take enormous risks to advance the rights of their fellow
citizens and to promote the principles of freedom of expression,
religion, and assembly. They fight for rights to access education and
healthcare, and they fight discrimination, corruption, and violence.
For their words and for their actions, all too often, governments turn
these women into political prisoners.
Today, I want to highlight just a tiny fraction of the countless
number of women and girls held behind bars unjustly. Similarly,
unfortunately, the repressive governments detaining these women are
just a small fraction of the governments around the world that lock up
women for exercising their fundamental freedoms.
Just last week, the government of Saudi Arabia announced that it
would put on trial its country's leading women's rights activists who
have been in prison without charges since May 2018. The crackdown on
these activists began just weeks ahead of the much-anticipated lifting
of the ban on women driving, one of the very causes for which many of
the detained activists had campaigned. While some were quickly
released, others remain imprisoned. They include Loujain al-Hathloul,
Aziza al-Yousef, Eman al-Nafjan, Nouf Abdelaziz, Mayaa al-Zahrani,
Samar Badawi, Nassima al-Saada, Hatoon al-Fassi, Shadan al-Onezi, and
Amal al-Harbi. Credible reports indicate that Saudi interrogators
tortured at least four of the women, including with electric shocks and
whippings and sexual harassment and assault.
In the Philippines, Senator Leila de Lima, a brave champion of human
rights, launched an investigation into extrajudicial executions that
began shortly after President Duterte took office in 2016. As one of
the only leaders bold enough to oppose President Duterte's ``war on
drugs,'' she has faced prolonged arbitrary detention, according to
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. President Duterte has
sought to silence her courageous voice as she spoke out against
widespread human rights violations, including thousands of
extrajudicial executions of mostly poor and marginalized people.
In Egypt, Hanan Badr el-Din, a human rights defender and cofounder of
the Families of the Forcibly Disappeared Association, was detained on
May 6, 2017, at Qanatar prison while visiting an individual who had
been forcibly disappeared. She started her activism following the
forced disappearance of her husband in 2013. She suffers from a serious
genetic disorder, and her health is rapidly deteriorating.
China is responsible for some of the most grave human rights abuses,
including of women. China has imprisoned hundreds of thousands of
Uighur women in detention camps across its northwest region. These
women are forced to renounce their Muslim religion and Uighur language
and memorize Chinese propaganda. Forced labor, torture, and death are
common. Thousands of children have been separated from their mothers
and fathers and placed in a separate network of orphanages. One husband
of a Uighur woman told Human Rights Watch: ``My wife was about to go
back overseas but they took her passport. And when she went to ask to
get her passport back, they told her she needs to be subjected to
political education for 10 days, and then they would let her go. That
was on July 20, 2017. Since then, she's been in a political education
camp.'' The family of Guligeina Tashimaimaiti, a Uighur PhD student who
was last seen in December 2017 when she returned from studying in
Malaysia, for example, fears she is in detention and at risk of torture
and other ill treatment.
China has also targeted Tibetan Buddhist nuns. The government
expelled hundreds of nuns in 2017 from Larung Gar in Sichuan, the
world's largest Tibetan Buddhist center. Their homes were demolished;
they were barred from entering other monasteries, and faced detention,
harassment, and abuse.
In Eritrea, Aster Fissehatsion has been held incommunicado without
charge or trial since September 2001. Her whereabouts, 17 years later,
are still not known. Aster Fissehatsion was arrested together with 10
other members of a group of political dissidents known as the Group of
15, or G-15, including her former husband, former Vice President and
foreign minister of Eritrea, Mahmoud Ahmed Sheriffo.
Perhaps, most tragically, this is just a snapshot of some of the
brave women who dare to speak up for fundamental rights and values.
So on this International Women's Day, as we reflect on the
achievements of women and reflect on the work that remains to be done,
I call on all of us to redouble our efforts to free women political
prisoners. Governments have the responsibility to promote the safety,
well-being, and fundamental rights of their citizens. I call on
governments who are unjustly detaining, harassing, and torturing women
for exercising their fundamental rights to immediately release these
politically motivated detentions. As they continue to struggle, let us
all take up the mantle of their cause.
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