III 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 262 

To support the empowerment of women and urge countries to #FreeThe20. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 22, 2015 

Ms. AYOTTE (for herself, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Ms. COLLINS, Mrs. SHAHEEN, 

Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mrs. MCCASKILL, Mrs. FISCHER, Ms. BALDWIN, Mrs. 

GILLIBRAND, Ms. MURKOWSKI, Ms. HEITKAMP, Ms. STABENOW, Ms. MIKULSKI, Ms. WARREN, Mrs. CAPITO, Mrs. ERNST, Mrs. BOXER, Ms. 

HIRONO, Ms. CANTWELL, and Mrs. MURRAY) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

To support the empowerment of women and urge countries 

to #FreeThe20. 

Whereas, in 1995, representatives from 189 governments and 

tens of thousands of organizations met in Beijing at the 

Fourth World Conference on Women for the purpose of 

empowering women; 

Whereas, at the Fourth World Conference on Women, the 

governments represented produced the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a roadmap seeking to advance gender equality and women’s rights; 

Whereas, on September 27, 2015, the United Nations will 

host the ‘‘Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality 


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and Women’s Empowerment: A Commitment to Action’’ 

at the United Nations headquarters in New York City; 

Whereas, at this high level conference, governments will be 

invited to make commitments to achieve gender equality 

and the empowerment of women; 

Whereas the ongoing imprisonment by many countries of innocent women is contrary to Universal Declaration of 

Human Rights, as well as the Beijing Declaration and 

Platform for Action; 

Whereas some countries attending the conference at the 

United Nations imprison women for exercising universal 

human rights; and 

Whereas, on September 1, 2015, the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations began a government-wide campaign to highlight the cases of women 

prisoners held unjustly around the world, including— 

(1) Wang Yu of China, who— 

(A) after being assaulted attempting to board a 

train in 2008, was sentenced to 21⁄2 years in prison 

for assault; 

(B) has taken on the cases of clients who other 

lawyers fear representing; 

(C) has been harassed, threatened, and smeared 

in the state-run media; and 

(D) was detained again on July 9, 2015; 

(2) Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan, who was— 

(A) arrested in December 2014 in a crackdown 

on civil society activists and journalists; and 

(B) sentenced on September 1, 2015, to 71⁄2

years in prison after alleging government fraud; 

(3) Bahareh Hedayat of Iran, a student activist and 

campaigner for women’s rights, who— 


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(A) was arrested December 31, 2009, and 

charged with several ‘‘offenses’’ including interviews 

with foreign media and insulting the President and 

leader; 

(B) was sentenced in May 2010 to— 

(i) 6 months in prison for ‘‘insulting the 

president’’; 

(ii) 2 years in prison for ‘‘insulting the 

leader’’; and 

(iii) 5 years in prison for ‘‘gathering and 

colluding to commit crimes against national security’’; 

(C) received an additional 6 months in prison 

for having written a letter in December 2010 encouraging students to continue struggling peacefully 

for freedom; and 

(D) was given an additional 2-year prison sentence on August 28, 2015; 

(4) Blen Mesfin, Meron Alemayehu, and Nigist 

Wondifraw of Ethiopia, who were imprisoned after being 

charged with inciting violence during anti-Islamic State 

in Libya demonstrations in Addis Ababa in April 2015; 

(5) Gao Yu of China, a 71-year-old veteran journalist, who was initially arrested in April 2014 as authorities detained dozens of rights activists and dissidents 

ahead of the 25th anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen 

Square Massacre and was sentenced to 7 years in jail on 

April 17, 2015, on charges of ‘‘leaking state secrets overseas’’; 

(6) Aster Yohannes of Eritrea, the wife of an imprisoned political activist, who— 

(A) was arrested in 2003 upon returning from 

the United States; 


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(B) was never publicly accused of a crime or 

tried in a court of law; and 

(C) is of unknown whereabouts; 

(7) Matlyuba Kamilova of Uzbekistan, who— 

(A) was jailed in September 2010 for alleged 

drug possession; 

(B) was arrested under highly suspicious circumstances in the midst of efforts to expose police 

corruption; and 

(C) remains in prison; 

(8) Leyla Yunus of Azerbaijan, who— 

(A) was arrested with her husband in August 

2014 during a broad crackdown on civil society activists; 

(B) was sentenced to an 81⁄2-year prison term 

on August 13, 2015; 

(C) was named by France as a Chevalier of the 

National Order of the Legion of Honour in 2013 in 

recognition of her human rights work; and 

(D) received the Polish Prize of Se ́rgio Vieira 

de Mello in 2014; 

(9) Phyoe Aung of Burma, who was arrested in 

March 2015, with over 100 participants, for leading protests advocating for reform to the education system of 

Burma; 

(10) Ta Phong Tan of Vietnam, who was arrested 

in 2011 for ‘‘anti-state propaganda’’ for writing online 

articles alleging government corruption and was sentenced in 2012 to 10 years in prison with 2 years of 

house arrest to follow; 

(11) Liu Xia of China, who— 


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(A) has been under house arrest since the 2010 

announcement that her husband received the Nobel 

Peace Prize; 

(B) is confined to her Beijing apartment without internet or phone access; 

(C) is allowed only weekly trips to buy groceries 

and visit her parents; 

(D) is allowed to visit Liu Xiaobo once a 

month; and 

(E) reportedly suffers from heart problems and 

severe depression; 

(12) Sanaa Seif of Egypt, who was sentenced in October 2014, with 23 other people, to 3 years in prison for 

conducting a peaceful demonstration without permission, 

a sentence which was reduced to 2 years in December 

2014; 

(13) Judge Marı ́a Lourdes Afuini Mora of Venezuela, who— 

(A) was imprisoned in December 2009 on 

charges of corruption and abuse of authority for releasing an imprisoned banker, was placed on house 

arrest until June 2013, and, according to President 

Chavez, ‘‘must pay for what she has done’’; and 

(B) is on conditional release awaiting trial and 

is forbidden to leave the country or speak publicly; 

(14) Naw Ohn Hla of Burma, who— 

(A) is the co-founder of the Democracy and 

Peace Women Network and a prominent land rights 

and political prisoners advocate; 

(B) was sentenced to a 4-year-and-4-month 

term in prison on May 15, 2015, for protesting, in 

front of the Chinese Embassy in Rangoon, the deadVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:48 Sep 23, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR262.IS SR262

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ly police crackdown at the Chinese company 

Wanbao’s Letpadaung copper mine; and 

(C) was, on June 29, 2015, given an additional 

6-month prison term with hard labor for conducting 

a peaceful prayer service in 2007 protesting against 

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest; 

(15) Nadiya Savchenko of Russia, who— 

(A) is a member of the parliament of Ukraine, 

the Verkhovna Rada, and a helicopter pilot in the 

Ukrainian military; 

(B) was seized in Ukraine by Russian-backed 

separatists in 2014; and 

(C) was illegally transferred to Russian custody, 

where she remains; 

(16) serving as a composite for prisoners of concern 

worldwide, an estimated 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, including men, women, and children, who are detained in the brutal political prison camps of North 

Korea where starvation, forced labor, executions, rape, 

sexual violence, forced abortions, and torture are commonplace and whose offenses, according to defectors, include— 

(A) burning old currency or criticizing the currency revaluation of the Government; 

(B) sitting on newspapers bearing the picture of 

Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il; 

(C) mentioning the limited formal education of 

Kim Il Sung; and 

(D) defacing photographs of the Kims; 

(17) Bui Thi Minh Hang of Vietnam— 

(A) is an active anti-China demonstrator and 

vocal supporter of human rights and democracy, 


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with a particular focus on helping victims and their 

families; 

(B) was arrested on February 12, 2014 and is 

serving a 3-year sentence for ‘‘disrupting public 

order’’; and 

(C) was detained without trial for 6 months at 

a ‘‘reeducation center’’ prior to her arrest in February of 2014; and 

(18) Rasha Chorbaji of Syria— 

(A) who was arrested trying to obtain a passport in 2014 with 3 of her children because her husband opposed the regime during the revolution; and 

(B) whose children were taken by the Government of Syria and placed in an orphanage, and 

whose husband drowned in the Mediterranean Sea 

while fleeing Syria: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) recognizes the 20th anniversary of the Bei3 jing Declaration and Platform for Action, as well as 

4 the high level conference in September 2015 at the 

5 United Nations to empower women; 

6 (2) recognizes that many women will not be 

7 able to participate in the dialogue about the con8 ference in September 2015 because they are impris9 oned unjustly; 

10 (3) reiterates support for efforts to empower 

11 women and secure universal human rights for 

12 women; 


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1 (4) reminds governments attending the con2 ference that unjustly imprisoning women is incon3 sistent with the Beijing Declaration and does not 

4 empower women; 

5 (5) welcomes the release of Ta Phong Tan of 

6 Vietnam on September 19, 2015, whose release was 

7 called for as part of the campaign; 

8 (6) calls for the immediate release of the 

9 women mentioned in the preamble of this resolution, 

10 most of whom remain wrongfully imprisoned or 

11 under house arrest; and 

12 (7) encourages conference attendees to fulfill 

13 previous commitments related to the empowerment 

14 of women and to commit to meaningful and concrete 

15 steps to advance women’s rights, for the betterment 

16 of all people. 

Æ 


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