[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 168 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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115th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 168
Supporting respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive
governance in Ethiopia.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 17, 2017
Mr. Cardin (for himself, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Durbin,
Mr. Cornyn, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Coons, Mr. Gardner, Mr. Booker, Mr.
Brown, Mr. Franken, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Merkley, and Mr. Warner)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Supporting respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive
governance in Ethiopia.
Whereas the first pillar of the 2012 United States Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan
Africa is to strengthen democratic institutions, and the United States
Agency for International Development Democracy, Human Rights, and
Governance Strategy states that strong democratic institutions, respect
for human rights, and participatory, accountable governance are crucial
elements for improving people's lives in a sustainable way;
Whereas the third pillar of the 2012 United States Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan
Africa is to advance peace and security, including supporting security
sector reform;
Whereas democratic space in Ethiopia has steadily diminished since the general
elections of 2005;
Whereas elections were held in 2015 in which the ruling Ethiopian People's
Revolutionary Democratic Front and its affiliates claimed 100 percent of
parliamentary seats;
Whereas the 2016 Department of State Human Rights Report on Ethiopia cited
serious human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, killings,
rape, and torture committed by security forces as well as increased
restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of association,
politically motivated trials, harassment, intimidation, and arrest of
opposition members and journalists;
Whereas the Government of Ethiopia has repeatedly abused laws such as the 2009
Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to limit press freedom, silence independent
journalists, and persecute members of the political opposition;
Whereas laws such as the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation have been
used to restrict the operation of civil society and nongovernmental
organizations in Ethiopia across a range of purposes, particularly those
investigating alleged violations of human rights by governmental
authorities;
Whereas the case of the ``Zone 9 Bloggers'', whose arrest and detention in 2014
and subsequent trials on terrorism charges brought international
attention to the restrictions on press freedom in Ethiopia, is
indicative of the coercive environment in which journalists continue to
operate;
Whereas the arrest, detention, and demeaning treatment of hundreds of
dissidents, including leaders of legally registered opposition parties
such as Bekele Gerba, arrested in December 2015, and Merera Gudina,
arrested in November 2016, of the Oromo Federalist Congress, Yonatan
Tesfaye Regassa, arrested in December 2015, of the Semayawi Party (the
Blue Party), and the arrest and sentencing of Okello Akway Ochalla,
former governor of the Gambella region, are indicative of repressive
political conditions that prevail in the country;
Whereas the Ethiopian Human Rights Council reported last year at least 102
protestor deaths from November 2015 to February 2016 across 9
administrative zones, Human Rights Watch reports that Ethiopian security
forces have killed at least 500 peaceful protestors, and Amnesty
International reported that more than 800 protesters have been killed
since November 2015 and that number is likely higher;
Whereas, on October 9, 2016, the Government of Ethiopia imposed a far-reaching,
six-month state of emergency that restricted a broad range of actions,
including blocking mobile Internet access and social media
communications, undermining freedoms of association, expression, and
peaceful assembly, which led to the arrest of over 26,000 persons, and
which was extended by four months on March 30, 2017;
Whereas, on October 10, 2016, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom
of peaceful assembly and of association and the United Nations Working
Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances and on extrajudicial,
summary or arbitrary executions publicly called on the Government of
Ethiopia to allow an international commission of inquiry to investigate
the protests and the violence used against peaceful demonstrators;
Whereas former detainees report torture, lack of rations, and other forms of
serious abuse in detention facilities;
Whereas state-sponsored violence against citizens exercising their rights to
peaceful assembly in Oromia and elsewhere in the country, and the abuse
of laws to stifle journalistic and political freedoms, stand in direct
contrast to democratic principles and in violation of Ethiopia's
constitution;
Whereas serious abuses have been and continue to be committed in the Somali
regional state by Ethiopian federal and regional security forces, some
of which may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity;
Whereas to date, the Government of Ethiopia has held no one accountable for any
of the aforementioned abuses; and
Whereas, during President Barack Obama's historic visit to Addis Ababa in July
2015, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn expressed his government's
commitment to deepen the democratic process and work towards the respect
of human rights and improving governance, and noted the need to step up
efforts to strengthen institutions, but the Government of Ethiopia has
failed to take concrete actions to follow through with this commitment:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) condemns--
(A) killings of peaceful protesters and excessive
use of force by Ethiopian security forces;
(B) arrest and detention of journalists, students,
activists and political leaders who exercise their
constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and
expression through peaceful protests; and
(C) abuse of the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation to
stifle political and civil dissent and journalistic
freedoms;
(2) urges protesters in Ethiopia to refrain from violence,
and to refrain from encouraging or accepting any and all
violence in demonstrations;
(3) calls on the Government of Ethiopia to--
(A) fully lift the state of emergency;
(B) end the practice of excessive force by security
forces;
(C) grant the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights and United Nations Special Rapporteurs
full access to conduct a comprehensive independent
examination of the state of human rights in Ethiopia;
(D) conduct a full, credible, and transparent
investigation into the killings and instances of
excessive use of force that took place as a result of
protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions and hold
security forces accountable for wrongdoing through
public proceedings, and to publicly release the
findings through a written report;
(E) release all dissidents, members of the
political opposition, activists, and journalists who
have been jailed, including those arrested for
reporting about the protests, for exercising
constitutional rights;
(F) respect the right to freedom of peaceful
assembly and guarantee freedom of the press and mass
media in keeping with Articles 30 and 29 of the
Ethiopian constitution;
(G) engage in open and transparent consultations
relative to its development strategy, especially those
strategies that could result in people's displacement
from land, offering those displaced from their land the
right to seek remedy or redress in courts and providing
a transparent means to access justice for those
displaced; and
(H) repeal proclamations that--
(i) can be used as a political tool to
harass individuals or organizations that engage
in peaceful political dissent or advocate for
greater political freedoms; or
(ii) prohibit or otherwise limit funding
for civil society organizations working on,
supporting, or advocating for respect for
constitutional rights, the rule of law, and
protection of human rights;
(4) calls on the Secretary of State to share with Congress
the results of a review of security assistance to Ethiopia in
light of these developments and to improve transparency with
respect to the purposes of such assistance to the people of
Ethiopia;
(5) calls on the Administrator of the United States Agency
for International Development to immediately lead efforts to
develop a comprehensive strategy to support improved democracy
and governance in Ethiopia;
(6) calls on the Secretary of State, in conjunction with
the Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development, to improve oversight and accountability of United
States assistance to Ethiopia pursuant to expectations
established in the President's 2012 Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan
Africa;
(7) calls on the President to apply appropriate sanctions
on foreign persons or entities responsible for extrajudicial
killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally
recognized human rights committed against any nationals in
Ethiopia as provided for in the Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114-
328); and
(8) stands by the people of Ethiopia, and supports their
peaceful efforts to increase democratic space and to exercise
the rights guaranteed by the Ethiopian constitution.
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