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[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 27 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 27

Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the human rights situation 
                   in the People's Republic of China.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 20, 1999

Mr. Wellstone submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                   the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the human rights situation 
                   in the People's Republic of China.

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, according to the United States Department of State and international 
        human rights organizations, the Government of the People's Republic of 
        China continues to commit widespread and well-documented human rights 
        abuses, in violation of internationally accepted norms, stemming from 
        the authorities' intolerance of dissent, fear of unrest, and the absence 
        or inadequacy of laws protecting basic freedoms;
Whereas China is bound by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recently 
        signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but has 
        yet to take the necessary steps to make the covenant legally binding;
Whereas the administration decided not to sponsor a resolution criticizing China 
        at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 1998 in consideration of Chinese 
        commitments to sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
        Rights and based on a belief that progress on human rights in China 
        could be achieved through other means;
Whereas the Chinese authorities have recently escalated efforts to extinguish 
        expressions of protest or criticism, and detained scores of citizens 
        associated with attempts to organize a legal democratic opposition, as 
        well as religious leaders, writers, and others who petitioned the 
        authorities to release those arbitrarily arrested; and
Whereas these recent crackdowns underscore that the Chinese Government has not 
        retreated from its longstanding pattern of human rights abuses, despite 
        expectations from two summit meetings between President Clinton and 
        President Jiang, in which assurances of improvements in China's human 
        rights record were made: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that at the 54th 
Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, 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.
                                 <all>
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