Support for Iranian Political Prisoners Act
Bill: H.R.9075 | Sponsor: Rep. Schiff, Adam B. (D-CA)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Support for Iranian Political Prisoners Act
This bill authorizes the Department of State to continue providing assistance to civil society organizations in Iran that support arbitrarily detained individuals. The bill calls on Iran to immediately end human rights violations of political prisoners and persons imprisoned for exercising freedom of speech. The bill also calls on Iran to allow the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights unimpeded access to investigate alleged abuses.

To call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to immediately end violations 
   of the human rights, and facilitate the unconditional, immediate 
 release, of all arbitrarily detained individuals, including peaceful 
 protesters, political prisoners, and prisoners of conscience, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Support for Iranian Political 
Prisoners Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 
        guarantees the right to life, liberty, and security of person. 
        Article 9 of such Declaration prohibits arbitrary arrests or 
        detentions and Article 18 of such Declaration guarantees the 
        right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
            (2) As a member state of the United Nations and other 
        international institutions, the Islamic Republic of Iran is 
        bound by international commitments concerning human rights and 
        the rule of law. Nevertheless, the Islamic Republic of Iran has 
        systematically and consistently curtailed the ability of 
        Iranian citizens to exercise fundamental freedoms without fear 
        of retribution.
            (3) On September 13, 2022, 22-year-old Masha Amini was 
        detained by the Islamic Republic of Iran's Morality Police, for 
        allegedly having visible hair under her headscarf.
            (4) On September 19, 2022, in response to her death, 
        protesters took to the streets across Iran. The Iranian 
        Government sought to put down these protests with violence, 
        which has resulted in the deaths of at least 48 people, 
        including 20-year-old Hadis Najafi, who was shot multiple times 
        by security forces according to eyewitnesses, and the arrests 
        of hundreds more.
            (5) On October 6, 2021, the United Nations Office of the 
        High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement 
        expressing grave concern regarding the consistent practice of 
        the Islamic Republic of Iran to deny medical treatment to 
        detainees, including political prisoners. Denials of medical 
        treatment worsened during the year 2021 due to the spread of 
        COVID-19 throughout prisons. The statement also called for the 
        unconditional release of human rights defenders, attorneys, 
        political prisoners, peaceful protesters, and all other persons 
        deprived of liberty for expressing views or otherwise 
        exercising rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
            (6) On December 16, 2021, the General Assembly of the 
        United Nations adopted Resolution 76/178, criticizing the 
        practices of the Islamic Republic of Iran and calling on the 
        Islamic Republic of Iran to implement significant reforms, 
        including--
                    (A) ensuring that no person is subject to torture 
                or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment;
                    (B) ceasing the widespread and systematic use of 
                arbitrary arrests and detentions;
                    (C) releasing persons detained for exercising the 
                human rights and fundamental freedoms; and
                    (D) improving the conditions of prisons.
            (7) According to the 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights 
        Practices issued by the Department of State, the Islamic 
        Republic of Iran took few steps during the year 2021 to 
        identify, investigate, prosecute, or punish persons at all 
        levels of the Iranian Government and the Iranian security 
        forces. Such reports include credible accounts that the Islamic 
        Republic of Iran or agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 
        have been implicated in--
                    (A) unlawful or arbitrary killings;
                    (B) forced disappearances;
                    (C) torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading 
                treatment;
                    (D) arbitrary arrest or detention;
                    (E) harsh or life-threatening prison conditions;
                    (F) lack of judiciary independence, particularly 
                regarding the revolutionary courts;
                    (G) severe restrictions on free expression and 
                media, including censorship, criminalization of libel 
                and slander, and violence, threats of violence, 
                unjustified arrests, and prosecutions against 
                journalists; and
                    (H) serious restrictions on and harassment of 
                domestic or international human rights organizations.
            (8) The 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 
        further reported that political prisoners in the Islamic 
        Republic of Iran were at greater risk of torture and abuse in 
        detention and were often mixed with the general prison 
        population. Former prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran 
        reported that government authorities often threatened political 
        prisoners with transfer to criminal wards, where attacks by 
        fellow prisoners were more likely. Human rights activists and 
        international media organizations reported cases of political 
        prisoners confined with persons accused of and convicted of 
        violent crime. The Islamic Republic of Iran also often exiled 
        political prisoners to prisons in remote provinces far from the 
        families of such prisoners as a means of reprisal, denied such 
        prisoners a right to correspondence and access to legal 
        counsel, and held such prisoners in solitary confinement for 
        long periods.
            (9) According to the organization Iran Human Rights, in 
        October of 2021, political prisoners Shapour Ehsanirad, Pouya 
        Ghobadi, Esmail Gerami, Akbar Bagheri, and Akbar Shirazi were 
        seriously injured after being attacked by prisoners accused of 
        or convicted of violent crime.
            (10) According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on 
        the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 
        the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran 
        and the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary 
        Guard Corps control secret detention centers with 
        ``deplorable'' conditions. Such centers often house, for 
        extended pretrial detentions, political prisoners and other 
        persons arbitrarily arrested on national security charges. For 
        example, Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi have been 
        arbitrarily detained in section 209 of Evin Prison since such 
        persons were arrested in April of 2020. Evin Prison, a 
        notorious facility located in Tehran, is under the control of 
        the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran 
        and is a primary prison for political detainees.
            (11) Attorneys who defend political prisoners detained by 
        the Islamic Republic of Iran are regularly arrested, detained, 
        and subjected to excessive punishments for engaging in regular 
        professional activities. The Islamic Republic of Iran also 
        continues to imprison attorneys and others affiliated with the 
        advocacy group Defenders of Human Rights Center. According to 
        the Center for Human Rights in Iran, not less than 5 human 
        rights attorneys--Soheila Hejab, Payam Derafshan, Mohammad 
        Nafari, Amirsalar Davoudi, and Nasrin Sotoudeh--were in prison 
        during the year 2021 for performing human rights work.
            (12) With limited options for recourse, political prisoners 
        regularly participate in hunger strikes to raise awareness 
        about prison conditions and the plight of political prisoners, 
        who are often denied medical treatment. In January of 2022, 
        according to reporting by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 6 
        prisoners in Evin Prison went on a hunger strike following the 
        death of jailed Iranian poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin. At 
        least 3 other prisoners at the Gharchak Women's Prison and the 
        Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary joined the hunger strike. 
        Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that dozens of 
        prisoners are believed to have died in the prisons of the 
        Islamic Republic of Iran due to mistreatment, including 
        beatings, torture, and a lack of proper medical care.
            (13) In August of 2021, following the release of footage of 
        mistreatment and torture at Evin Prison, the Bureau of 
        Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the Department of State 
        issued a statement stating that the ``recently leaked footage 
        of [the] notorious Evin Prison confirms what we have long 
        known: torture is systemic in Iranian prisons. We call on the 
        Islamic Republic of Iran to release all political prisoners and 
        to treat all prisoners with dignity''.
            (14) According to the organization United for Iran, more 
        than 556 prisoners of conscience, including persons jailed for 
        religious beliefs, were held in 200 or more prisons in the 
        Islamic Republic of Iran as of May of 2022.

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the policy of the United States that--
            (1) the Islamic Republic of Iran should allow the United 
        Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in 
        the Islamic Republic of Iran unimpeded access to facilitate the 
        full implementation of the mandate of the United Nations 
        Special Rapporteur, including--
                    (A) investigating alleged violations of human 
                rights that are occurring or have occurred both within 
                prisons and elsewhere;
                    (B) transmitting urgent appeals and letters to the 
                Islamic Republic of Iran regarding alleged violations 
                of human rights; and
                    (C) engaging with relevant stakeholders in the 
                Islamic Republic of Iran and the surrounding region;
            (2) the Islamic Republic of Iran should immediately end 
        violations of the human rights of political prisoners or 
        persons imprisoned for exercising the right to freedom of 
        speech, including--
                    (A) torture;
                    (B) assault;
                    (C) denial of access to health care; and
                    (D) denial of a fair trial;
            (3) all arbitrarily detained individuals, including 
        peaceful protesters, political prisoners, and prisoners of 
        conscience, should be unconditionally and immediately released;
            (4) all diplomatic tools of the United States should be 
        invoked to ensure that all arbitrarily detained individuals, 
        including political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in 
        the Islamic Republic of Iran are released, including raising 
        individual cases of particular concern; and
            (5) all officials of the Government of the Islamic Republic 
        of Iran who are responsible for human rights abuses in the form 
        of politically motivated imprisonment should be held to 
        account, including through the imposition of sanctions pursuant 
        to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 
        U.S.C. 10101 et seq.) and other applicable statutory 
        authorities of the United States.

SEC. 4. ASSISTANCE FOR PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE AND POLITICAL PRISONERS.

    The Secretary of State is authorized to continue to provide 
assistance to civil society organizations that support arbitrarily 
detained individuals, including prisoners of conscience and political 
prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including organizations 
that--
            (1) work to secure the release of such prisoners;
            (2) document violations of human rights with respect to 
        such prisoners;
            (3) support international advocacy to raise awareness of 
        issues relating to such prisoners;
            (4) support the health, including mental health, of such 
        prisoners; and
            (5) provide post-incarceration assistance to enable such 
        prisoners to resume normal lives, including access to 
        education, employment, or other forms of reparation.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Arbitrarily detained.--The term ``arbitrarily 
        detained'', with respect to an individual, means an individual 
        deprived of liberty due to the exercise of the rights or 
        freedoms described--
                    (A) in article 7, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20 or 21 of the 
                Universal Declaration of Human Rights; or
                    (B) in article 12, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26 or 27 of 
                the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
                Rights.
            (2) Political prisoner.--The term ``political prisoner'' 
        means a person who has been detained or imprisoned on 
        politically motivated grounds and may include persons that--
                    (A) have used violence;
                    (B) have advocated violence or hatred; or
                    (C) have committed a minor offense that serves as a 
                pretext for politically motivated imprisonment.
            (3) Prisoner of conscience.--The term ``prisoner of 
        conscience'' means a person who--
                    (A) is imprisoned or otherwise physically 
                restricted solely in response to the peaceful exercise 
                of the human rights of such person; and
                    (B) has not used violence or advocated violence or 
                hatred.
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