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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 2 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. CON. RES. 2

 Commending the bravery, courage, and resolve of the women and men of 
Iran demonstrating in more than 133 cities and risking their safety to 
      speak out against the Iranian regime's human rights abuses.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 26, 2023

 Mr. Menendez (for himself, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Coons, Mr. Risch, Mr. 
  Lankford, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Booker, Mr. Cardin, Mr. 
     Casey, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Cramer, Mrs. 
Gillibrand, Mr. Graham, Mr. Hagerty, Mr. Hoeven, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Kelly, 
   Mr. King, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Markey, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Murphy, Mr. 
Padilla, Ms. Rosen, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. 
   Sullivan, Mr. Tillis, and Mr. Van Hollen) submitted the following 
 concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 
 Commending the bravery, courage, and resolve of the women and men of 
Iran demonstrating in more than 133 cities and risking their safety to 
      speak out against the Iranian regime's human rights abuses.

Whereas, on September 16, 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini passed away in the 
        custody of Iranian ``morality police'' following a 3-day coma due to 
        wounds, including bone fracture, hemorrhage, and cerebral edema 
        consistent with severe beating, inflicted by the police for purportedly 
        wearing a hijab improperly;
Whereas, on September 16, 2022, Iranians gathered in the streets of Tehran to 
        protest the killing of Mahsa Amini;
Whereas demonstrations have since spread to more than 133 cities and 130 
        universities in Iran, where women are removing or burning hijabs, 
        cutting their hair, and dancing in front of Iranian security forces, 
        joined by their fellow Iranian citizens, in a call to end the Iranian 
        regime's systemic repression;
Whereas Iranian security forces have responded to such demonstrations with 
        violence and detentions, including detentions of journalists and 
        activists for covering the protests;
Whereas the security forces reportedly have killed more than 516 protestors, 
        including at least 70 children, although the number of injuries and 
        deaths is likely higher, but is unobtainable due to internet blackouts;
Whereas at least 19,200 Iranians have been arrested across Iran according to 
        official sources, and many thousands more have been detained according 
        to independent reports;
Whereas more than 60 percent of Iran's population is younger than 30 years old, 
        and the protests continue to be fueled by young people;
Whereas Iran's Revolutionary Courts have executed at least 4 individuals who 
        were involved in the protests, namely Mohsen Shekari, Majid Reza 
        Rahnavard, Mohammad Mehdi Karami, and Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, and have 
        charged at least 100 more individuals with crimes that are punishable in 
        Iran by death;
Whereas videos, images, and demonstrations have spread to social media platforms 
        and are an important way for the voices of the Iranian people to be 
        heard;
Whereas internet monitoring groups have reported that the Iranian regime has--

    (1) caused near-total disruption of internet connectivity in parts of 
Iran and partial disruptions in city centers; and

    (2) blocked WhatsApp, Twitter, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, and video 
games with chat functions;

Whereas common protest chants include--

    (1) ``Women, life, and freedom!'';

    (2) ``Iranians die but will not be suppressed!''; and

    (3) ``Death to the dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei!'';

Whereas the Iranian regime has a long history of structural and legal 
        discrimination against women, including barriers for women seeking 
        justice against domestic violence and criminal prohibitions against 
        women singing or showing hair in public and studying certain technical 
        subjects;
Whereas the Iranian regime approved of ``depriving one social right or more'' 
        for any woman who posts an unveiled picture of herself on social media, 
        and, in August 2022, approved of enforcing mandatory hijab laws through 
        facial recognition;
Whereas, through misogynistic criminal statutes, the Iranian regime for decades 
        has detained and engaged in the ongoing persecution of women, 
        including--

    (1) Saba Kord Afshari, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for 
posting videos to social media without a hijab and transferred into Ward 6 
of the notorious Qarchak Women's Prison, which the Secretary of the 
Treasury has identified as a place at which gross violations of human 
rights take place;

    (2) Raheleh Ahmadi, mother of Afshari, who was sentenced to 2 years in 
prison for advocacy on behalf of Afshari;

    (3) Yasaman Aryani, her mother Monireh Arabshahi, and Mojgan Keshavarz, 
who were sentenced to between 16 and 23 years in prison for posting a video 
for International Women's Day in 2019, during which they walked without 
headscarves through a metro train in Tehran, handing flowers to female 
passengers;

    (4) human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was sentenced in 2019 to 
38 years in prison and 148 lashes for providing legal defense services to 
women charged with not wearing a hijab;

    (5) Narges Mohammadi, a prominent rights advocate, who--

    G    (A) was sentenced to 10 years in prison in May 2015 for 
``establishing an illegal group'', ``assembly and collusion to act against 
national security'', and ``propaganda against the state'';

    G    (B) was arrested in November 2019 (on the second anniversary of 
countrywide protests) and rearrested in 2021; and

    G    (C) had her prison sentence extended in October 2022 to 11 years 
and 9 months;

    (6) former Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, Shahindokht 
Molaverdi, who was charged with encouraging ``corruption, prostitution, and 
sexual deviance'', a common charge against women refusing mandatory hijab 
laws, and sentenced in December 2020 to 30 months in prison for defending 
the right of women to attend sporting events and criticizing the practice 
of child marriage;

    (7) 6 women who were sentenced by the Culture and Media Court of Tehran 
in July 2022 to each serve 1 year in prison for the offense of singing 
songs in public;

    (8) Niloufar Hamedi, who was one of the first Iranian journalists to 
report on Mahsa Amini's death, who was arrested on September 22, 2022, and 
is being held in solitary confinement; and

    (9) countless other women;

Whereas the Iranian regime consistently commits a range of human rights abuses 
        in addition to its systematic persecution of women and peaceful 
        protesters, including--

    (1) unlawful or arbitrary killings and torture;

    (2) trials without due process;

    (3) forced disappearances;

    (4) arbitrary arrest and detention;

    (5) life-threatening prison conditions;

    (6) transnational attacks against dissidents; and

    (7) severe restrictions on free expression and the media, peaceful 
assembly and association, and religious freedom;

Whereas Freedom House ranks the Government of Iran as one of the worst human 
        rights violators in the world, with a Global Freedom Score of 14 out of 
        100 and an Internet Freedom Score of 16 out of 100;
Whereas peaceful protests in Iran during 2022 have focused on grievances such 
        as--

    (1) mismanagement of the economy and national resources;

    (2) prioritization of funding for terror groups and pariah regimes over 
social services for the people of Iran; and

    (3) widespread political corruption: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), 
That Congress--
            (1) commends the bravery, courage, and resolve of the women 
        and men of Iran who are--
                    (A) participating in the current protests to defend 
                their fundamental human rights; and
                    (B) risking their safety to speak out against the 
                human rights abuses committed by the Iranian regime;
            (2) condemns--
                    (A) the brutal beating and death of Mahsa Amini; 
                and
                    (B) the violent suppression by the Iranian regime 
                of women and men participating in the current 
                demonstrations, including children, and calls for 
                transparent accountability for all killings of 
                protesters by Iranian security forces;
            (3) supports internet freedom programs that circumvent the 
        regime, including the Open Technology Fund, which provides 
        support for VPNs, proxy servers, and other alternatives that 
        can be used to bypass attempts by authoritarian governments to 
        censor internet access during times of protest, and commends 
        private entities willing to provide programs to circumvent such 
        censorship;
            (4) encourages continued efforts by the Biden 
        Administration to respond to the protests, including the recent 
        sanctioning of the Iranian morality police, and further 
        encourages the Biden Administration--
                    (A) to immediately impose, under existing 
                authorities, additional human rights sanctions on 
                officials and entities responsible for the repression 
                of the current protests;
                    (B) to prioritize efforts to expand unrestricted 
                internet access in Iran, consistent with existing law; 
                and
                    (C) to work to develop a strategy to prevent the 
                Iranian regime from obtaining and exploiting facial 
                recognition data and software for the use of mass 
                surveillance and enforcement of mandatory hijab;
            (5) encourages the private sector, following the recent 
        clarification by the Biden Administration of sanctions 
        exemptions on communications technology, to work with the Biden 
        Administration to ensure protestors and activists have access 
        to tools needed to circumvent government surveillance and 
        repression;
            (6) encourages representatives of the private sector to 
        coordinate with the Department of the Treasury and their 
        subsidiaries to utilize licensing opportunities and expand 
        access of key communications services to Iranians residing 
        within Iran;
            (7) welcomes the efforts of the international community to 
        support protestors in Iran, including by removing Iran from the 
        United Nations Commission on the Status of Women; and
            (8) calls on the international community--
                    (A) to publicly condemn violence by the Iranian 
                regime against peaceful protesters;
                    (B) to speak out against violations by the regime 
                of fundamental human rights, including the freedom of 
                expression, assembly, and redress of grievances of the 
                Iranian people; and
                    (C) impose human rights sanctions on officials and 
                entities that are responsible for the repression of 
                current protests and involved in violating the human 
                rights of the Iranian people.
                                 <all>
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