23 March 2000
Text: Senate Resolution 271 Calls for Geneva Resolution on China
(Wellstone resolution aims to avoid last year's failure) (830) This year it will be different in Geneva, if the sentiment of a Minnesota Democrat's Senate resolution becomes reality. Senator Paul Wellstone introduced Senate Resolution 271 March 9 with both Republican and Democratic co-sponsors. It aims to forestall a repeat of last year's United Nations Human Rights Commission's (UNHRC) meeting in Geneva, where the People's Republic of China was able to keep a resolution on its human rights abuses off the commission's agenda. The resolution says the Senate supports the decision of the Clinton Administration to introduce a resolution at the 56th Session of the UNHRC in Geneva "calling upon the People's Republic of China to end its human rights abuses." It also calls on the Clinton Administration to initiate high-level contact between the Administration and representatives of the European Union and other governments, and ensure that the resolution "be placed on the full United Nations Human Rights Commission's agenda by aggressively enlisting support for the resolution and soliciting co-sponsorship of it by other governments." Following is the text of the resolution: (begin text) Regarding the human rights situation in the People's Republic of China. (Introduced in the Senate) SRES 271 IS 106th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 271 Regarding the human rights situation in the People's Republic of China. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 9, 2000 Mr. WELLSTONE (for himself, Mr. TORRICELLI, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. FEINGOLD, and Mr. BROWNBACK) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations RESOLUTION Regarding the human rights situation in the People's Republic of China. Whereas the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, provides a forum for discussing human rights and expressing international support for improved human rights performance; Whereas in 1999, the Senate passed Senate Resolution 45 urging the United States to introduce and make all necessary efforts to pass a resolution condemning human rights practices of the Government of the People's Republic of China at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland; Whereas the United States thereafter introduced a resolution condemning human rights practices of the Government of the People's Republic of China at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland; Whereas this resolution was kept off the agenda of the full Commission by a `no-action' motion of the Government of the People's Republic of China, had no cosponsors, and received little support from European and other industrialized nations and did not pass; Whereas, according to the Department of State and international human rights organizations, the human rights record of the Government of the People's Republic of China has deteriorated sharply over the past year and authorities of the People's Republic of China continue to commit widespread and well-documented human rights abuses in China; Whereas such abuses stem from an intolerance of dissent and fear of civil unrest on the part of authorities in the People's Republic of China and from a failure to adequately enforce laws in the People's Republic of China that protect basic freedoms; Whereas such abuses violate internationally accepted norms of conduct enshrined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Whereas the People's Republic of China has signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but has yet to take the necessary steps to make it legally binding; Whereas authorities in the People's Republic of China have recently escalated efforts to extinguish expressions of protest or criticism and have detained scores of citizens associated with attempts to organize a legal democratic opposition, as well as religious leaders, academics, and members of minority groups; Whereas these efforts underscore that the Government of the People's Republic of China continues to commit serious human rights abuses that must be condemned; and Whereas the United States will again introduce a resolution condemning human rights practices of the Government of the People's Republic of China at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 20, 2000: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That (a) the Senate supports the decision of the Administration to introduce a resolution at the 56th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, calling upon the People's Republic of China to end its human rights abuses. (b) It is the sense of the Senate that the United States should make every effort necessary to pass such a resolution, including through initiating high level contact between the Administration and representatives of the European Union and other governments, and ensuring that the resolution be placed on the full United Nations Human Rights Commission's agenda by aggressively enlisting support for the resolution and soliciting co-sponsorship of it by other governments. (end text) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State - www.usinfo.state.gov)
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