Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Burma Political Pris-
oners Assistance Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Aung San Suu Kyi and the National 
League for Democracy (NLD) pledged that they 
‘‘would not arrest anyone as political prisoners’’, but 
have failed to fulfill this promise since they took con-
trol of Burma’s Union Parliament and the Govern-
ment’s executive branch in April 2016. 
(2) As of the end of April 2019, there were 331 
political prisoners in Burma, 48 of them serving sen-
tences, 90 awaiting trial inside prison, and 193 
awaiting trial outside prison, according to the Assist-
ance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma. 
(3) During its 3 years in power, the NLD Gov-
ernment has provided pardons for Burma’s political 
prisoners on six occasions. State Counsellor Aung 
San Suu Kyi took steps to secure the release of 
nearly 235 political prisoners in April 2016. On May 
23, 2017, former President Htin Kyaw granted par-
dons to 259 prisoners, including 89 political pris-
oners. On April 17, 2018, current President Win 
Myint pardoned 8,541 prisoners, including 36 polit-
ical prisoners. In April and May 2019, he pardoned 
more than 23,000 prisoners, including 20 political 
prisoners. 
(4) The Burmese security forces have used colo-
nial-era laws to arrest and charge political prisoners 
and prisoners of conscience. These laws include but 
are not limited to provisions of the Penal Code, the 
Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Act, the 
1908 Unlawful Associations Act, the 2013 Tele-
communications Act, and the 1923 Official Secrets 
Act. 
(5) On December 12, 2017, Reuters reporters 
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested and 
charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, con-
tinuing a trend of restricting media and free speech 
and attempting to thwart coverage of the events in 
Rakhine State. 
(6) On September 3, 2018, Wa Lone and Kyaw 
Soe Oo were convicted and sentenced to 7 years in 
prison. Time Magazine included pictures of the two 
reporters on the cover of its ‘‘Person of the Year’’ 
issue on December 10, 2018, as two of the ‘‘Guard-
ians and the War on Truth’’.
(7) On May 6, 2019, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe 
Oo were released after more than 500 days behind 
bars. 
(8) According to Burmese free speech organiza-
tion Athan, 44 journalists and 142 activists since 
2016 were charged with colonial-era laws used to sti-
fle dissent and restrict activist groups and have 
faced trial. 
(9) Since December 2018, three Kachin activ-
ists were sentenced to 6 months in prison in connec-
tion with peaceful antiwar protests; a protester dem-
onstrating against the Myitsone Dam (a controver-
sial Chinese-backed hydropower project) was charged 
for peaceful demonstrations, and police used exces-
sive force to crack down on peaceful protesters in 
Kayah State, with some of the demonstrators 
charged under vaguely worded, repressive laws. 
(10) On August 18, 2017, Aung Ko Htwe was 
arrested because he gave a media interview in which 
he described his experience as a child soldier, includ-
ing how the Burmese military abducted and forcibly 
recruited him when he was 13 years old. He was 
charged under Section 505(b) of Burma’s Penal 
Code.
(11) Although former Secretary of State Rex 
Tillerson took Burma off the State Department’s list 
of the worst offenders in the use of child soldiers in 
2017, the Department reinstated Burma to the list 
in 2018. According to the United Nations, the Bur-
mese military and ethnic guerrilla groups remain 
‘‘persistent perpetrators’ in the recruitment and use 
of children in [Burma].’’. 
SEC. 3. CHILD SOLDIERS. 
It is the sense of Congress that no one should be 
jailed for freely expressing him or herself or for speaking 
against the use of child soldiers. 
SEC. 4. PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY. 
It is the sense of Congress that Burma must imme-
diately drop defamation charges against the three Kachin 
activists, Lum Zawng, Nang Pu, and Zau Jet, who led 
a peaceful rally in Mytkyina, the capital of Kachin State 
in April 2018, and that the prosecution of Lum Zawng, 
Nang Pu, and Zau Jet is an attempt by the Burmese au-
thorities to intimidate, harass, and silence community 
leaders and human rights defenders who speak out about 
military abuses and the impact on civilian populations. 
SEC. 5. PRESS FREEDOM. 
It is the sense of Congress that press freedom is a 
fundamental human right and should be upheld and pro-
tected in Burma and everywhere, and that Burmese au-
thorities must immediately cease the arbitrary arrest, de-
tention, imprisonment, and physical attacks of journalists, 
which have created a climate of fear and self-censorship 
among local journalists. 
SEC. 6. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States that— 
(1) all prisoners of conscience and political pris-
oners in Burma should be unconditionally and im-
mediately released; 
(2) the Administration and the Department of 
State should use all of their diplomatic tools to en-
sure that all prisoners of conscience and political 
prisoners in Burma are released; and 
(3) the Burmese Government should repeal or 
amend all laws that violate the rights to freedom of 
expression, peaceful assembly, or association, and 
ensure that laws such as the Telecommunications 
Law of 2013 and the Unlawful Associations Act of 
1908, and laws relating to the right to peaceful as-
sembly, all comply with international human rights 
standards. 
SEC. 7. POLITICAL PRISONERS ASSISTANCE. 
The Secretary of State shall continue to provide as-
sistance to civil society organizations in Burma that work
to secure the release of prisoners of conscience and polit-
ical prisoners in Burma, and assistance to current and 
former prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in 
Burma. Such assistance may include the following: 
(1) Support for the documentation of human 
rights violations with respect to prisoners of con-
science and political prisoners. 
(2) Support for advocacy in Burma to raise 
awareness of issues relating to prisoners of con-
science and political prisoners. 
(3) Support for efforts to repeal or amend laws 
that are used to imprison individuals as either pris-
oners of conscience or political prisoners. 
(4) Support for health, including mental health, 
and post-incarceration assistance in gaining access 
to education and employment opportunities or other 
forms of reparation to enable former prisoners of 
conscience and political prisoners to resume a nor-
mal life. 
(5) The creation, in consultation with former 
political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, their 
families, and representatives, of an independent pris-
oner review mechanism in Burma to review the cases 
of individuals who may have been charged or de-
prived of their liberty for peacefully exercising their
human rights, review all laws used to arrest, pros-
ecute, and punish individuals as political prisoners 
and prisoners of conscience, and provide rec-
ommendations to the Burmese Government for the 
repeal or amendment of all such laws. 
Passed the House of Representatives September 24, 
2019. 
Attest: 
Clerk.