Title: Burma Political Prisoners Assistance Act
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Burma Political Prisoners Assistance Act
This bill directs the Department of State to assist civil society organizations in Burma (Myanmar) working to release political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. Such assistance shall include support for (1) documenting human rights violations against such prisoners, (2) raising awareness of prisoner issues, and (3) helping former prisoners resume a normal life.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2327 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2327

To direct the Secretary of State to provide assistance to civil society 
organizations in Burma that work to secure the release of prisoners of 
conscience and political prisoners in Burma, and assistance to current 
 and former prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Burma, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 15, 2019

  Mr. Levin of Michigan (for himself and Mrs. Wagner) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Secretary of State to provide assistance to civil society 
organizations in Burma that work to secure the release of prisoners of 
conscience and political prisoners in Burma, and assistance to current 
 and former prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Burma, 
                        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 ``Burma Political Prisoners 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 control of Burma's Union Parliament and the Government's 
        executive branch in April 2016.
            (2) As of March 1, 2019, there are 354 political prisoners 
        in Burma, 43 of them serving sentences, 86 awaiting trial 
        inside prison, and 225 awaiting trial outside prison, according 
        to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma.
            (3) During its three years in power, the NLD Government has 
        provided pardons for Burma's political prisoners on three 
        occasions. State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi took steps to 
        secure the release of nearly 235 political prisoners. On May 
        23, 2017, former President Htin Kyaw granted pardons to 259 
        prisoners, including 89 political prisoners. On April 17, 2018, 
        current President Win Myint pardoned 8,541 prisoners, including 
        36 political prisoners.
            (4) The Burmese security forces have used colonial-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 Telecommunications Act, and the 1923 Official Secrets 
        Act.
            (5) On January 5, 2015, then-President Thein Sein announced 
        the reconstitution of the ``Scrutinizing Committee into the 
        Prisoners of Conscience Affairs Committee'', which was to 
        comprise 28 members and which would ``promptly [carry] out 
        prisoners of conscience affairs at the grassroots level''. 
        However, the Committee never met and no information has been 
        made publicly available regarding its mandate, procedures, or 
        activities.
            (6) On December 12, 2017, Reuters reporters Wa Lone and 
        Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested and charged with violating the 
        Official Secrets Act, continuing a trend of restricting media 
        and free speech and attempting to thwart coverage of the events 
        in Rakhine State.
            (7) On September 3, 2018, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were 
        convicted and sentenced to seven 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 ``Guardians and the War on Truth''.
            (8) According to Burmese free speech organization Athan, 44 
        journalists and 142 activists since 2016 were charged with 
        colonial-era laws used to stifle dissent and restrict activist 
        groups and have faced trial.
            (9) Since December 2018, three Kachin activists were 
        sentenced to six months in prison in connection with peaceful 
        antiwar protests; a protester demonstrating against the 
        Myitsone Dam (a controversial Chinese-backed hydropower 
        project) was charged for peaceful demonstrations, and police 
        used excessive 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, including how the military abducted and 
        forcibly recruited him when he was 13 years old. He was charged 
        under Section 505(b) of Burma's Penal Code. He faces up to two-
        and-a-half years in jail from the date of his conviction.

SEC. 3. CHILD SOLDIERS.

    It is the sense of Congress that former child soldier Aung Ko Htwe 
should be immediately and unconditionally released, and 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 immediately 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 authorities 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 Burma must immediately and 
unconditionally release Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and that the 
imprisonment of these two Reuters journalists for documenting and 
reporting the crimes under international law committed against the 
Rohingya people is a gross injustice. Congress holds that press freedom 
is a fundamental human right and should be upheld and protected in 
Burma and everywhere.

SEC. 6. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the policy of the United States that--
            (1) all prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in 
        Burma should be unconditionally and immediately released;
            (2) the Administration and the Department of State should 
        use all of their diplomatic tools to ensure 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 
        assembly, all comply with international human rights standards.

SEC. 7. POLITICAL PRISONERS ASSISTANCE.

    The Secretary of State shall provide assistance to civil society 
organizations in Burma that work to secure the release of prisoners of 
conscience and political prisoners in Burma, and assistance to current 
and former prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Burma. 
Such assistance shall include the following:
            (1) Support for the documentation of human rights 
        violations with respect to prisoners of conscience and 
        political prisoners.
            (2) Support for advocacy in Burma to raise awareness of 
        issues relating to prisoners of conscience and political 
        prisoners.
            (3) Support for efforts to repeal or amend laws that are 
        used to imprison individuals as either prisoners of conscience 
        or political prisoners.
            (4) Support, including travel costs, and legal fees, for 
        families of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners.
            (5) 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 normal life.
            (6) The creation, in consultation with former political 
        prisoners and prisoners of conscience, their families, and 
        representatives, of an independent prisoner review mechanism in 
        Burma to review the cases of individuals who may have been 
        charged or deprived of their liberty for peacefully exercising 
        their human rights, review all laws used to arrest, prosecute, 
        and punish individuals as political prisoners and prisoners of 
        conscience, and provide recommendations to the Burmese 
        Government for the repeal or amendment of all such laws.

SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Prisoner of conscience.--The term ``prisoner of 
        conscience'' means a person imprisoned or otherwise physically 
        restricted primarily because of his or her political, 
        religious, or other conscientiously held beliefs, ethnic 
        origin, sex, race, ethnicity, language, national or social 
        origin, economic status, birth, sexual orientation, or gender 
        identity, or for exercising his or her right to freedom of 
        expression or other human rights, and who has not used violence 
        or advocated violence.
            (2) Political prisoner.--The term ``political prisoner'' 
        means a person who is arrested, detained, or imprisoned for 
        political reasons under political charges or wrongfully under 
        criminal and civil charges because of his or her perceived or 
        known active role in, perceived or known supporting role in, or 
        perceived or known association with activities promoting 
        freedom, justice, equality, human rights, or civil and 
        political rights, including ethnic rights.
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