A bill to provide for the appointment of a Special Envoy for Belarus.

Bill: 118-s-2689
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH]
Introduced: 2023-07-27
Policy area: International Affairs
Latest action: action_date: 2023-07-27
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Summaries:

tv_txt: II 118th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 2689 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES July 27, 2023 Mrs. Shaheen introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations A BILL To provide for the appointment of a Special Envoy for Belarus.

1. Special Envoy for Belarus (a) Special envoy The President shall appoint a Special Envoy for Belarus within the Department of State (referred to in this section as the Special Envoy ). (b) Qualifications The Special Envoy— (1) should be a person of recognized distinction in the field of European security, geopolitics, democracy, and human rights; and (2) may be a career foreign service officer. (c) Central objective The central objective of the Special Envoy is to coordinate and promote efforts— (1) to improve respect for the fundamental human rights of the people of Belarus; (2) to sustain focus on the national security implications, for the United States, of Belarus’s political and military alignment; and (3) to respond to the political, economic, and security impacts of events in Belarus on neighboring countries and the wider region. (d) Duties and responsibilities The Special Envoy shall— (1) engage in discussions with Belarusian officials regarding human rights and political, economic, and security issues in Belarus; (2) support international efforts to promote human rights and political freedoms in Belarus, including coordination and dialogue between the United States and the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union, Belarus, and the other countries in Eastern Europe; (3) consult with nongovernmental organizations that have attempted to address human rights and political and economic instability in Belarus; (4) make recommendations regarding the funding of activities promoting human rights, democracy, the rule of law, and the development of a market economy in Belarus; (5) review strategies for improving protection of human rights in Belarus, including technical training and exchange programs; (6) develop an action plan for holding to account the perpetrators of the human rights violations documented in the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report on the situation of human rights in Belarus in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath (Human Rights Council Resolution 49/36); (7) engage with member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the European Union with respect to the implications of Belarus’s political and security alignment for transatlantic security; and (8) to work within the Department of State and among partnering countries to sustain focus on the political situation in Belarus. (e) Role The position of Special Envoy— (1) shall be a full-time position; (2) may not be combined with any other position within the Department of State; (3) shall only exist for the period during which United States diplomatic operations in Belarus at the United States Embassy in Minsk have been suspended; and (4) shall oversee the operations and personnel of the Belarus Affairs Unit of the Department of State. (f) Report on activities Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter for the following 5 years, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Special Envoy, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report that describes the activities undertaken pursuant to subsection (d) during the reporting period. (g) Termination The position of Special Envoy for Belarus Affairs and the authorities provided by this section shall terminate on the date that is 5 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.