Sec. 2. Findings

648 words·~3 min read·/bill/118/s/3705/is/section-2

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Congress finds the following: Around the world, human rights defenders form the backbone of democratic societies and movements, advocating for human rights and political freedoms, protecting the environment, fighting corruption, and supporting good governance, independent media, and labor rights. Reprisals against human rights defenders are on the rise as autocratic and illiberal regimes increasingly target human rights defenders with fabricated legal charges, threats and violence for exercising civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, often collaborating with transnational criminal organizations, paramilitary groups, private sector actors, and others to carry out such reprisals.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, every year hundreds of human rights defenders are murdered and thousands more are subjected to torture, enforced disappearance, sexual violence, hate crimes, unlawful or arbitrary detention, judicial harassment, unlawful or arbitrary digital surveillance, and forced exile. The lack of accountability for attacks on human rights defenders engenders further violence and leaves human rights defenders hesitant or unable to continue their work out of fear of retaliation.

Foreign governments are no longer oppressing only individuals within the borders of their countries and are increasingly resorting to transnational repression tactics, both digital and physical, to target human rights defenders outside of their countries of origin, often where such human rights defenders are seeking asylum or temporary refuge. Human rights defenders facing the highest levels of violence include individuals advocating for land rights and environmental issues, Indigenous communities, the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association, minority communities, and LGBTQI+, women’s, youth, and religious rights.

Environmental human rights defenders are vulnerable to reprisals because such human rights defenders pose challenges to financial interests and often live in remote areas where government oversight is weak and powerful actors can use corrupt practices and brute force to seize resources with impunity. Women human rights defenders often face additional grave risks, including gender-based violence, reprisals against their children, use of digital disinformation campaigns against them, and stigmatization from their families, workplaces, and communities.

Many human rights defenders who have been forced into exile desire to continue their advocacy from abroad, yet such human rights defenders lack the legal protections and support they need to continue such advocacy. The United States has a strong legacy of supporting human rights defenders. Given the rising number of human rights defenders at risk, the United States should elevate and enhance such support, especially at embassies, consulates, and foreign missions of the United States.

The training and guidance for individuals and organizations working with the United States Government, including members of the Foreign Service, on recognizing and responding to reprisals against human rights defenders is insufficient, leading to ad hoc and inconsistent responses, while human rights defenders who are at risk are frequently unaware of how to safely work with United States officials abroad and the resources that are available to human rights defenders. The United States has neither a coherent strategy to strengthen protections for human rights defenders, nor adequate measures to prevent and respond to cases in which members of foreign security forces, law enforcement, judicial institutions, criminal groups, or private companies contribute to attacks on human rights defenders.

The United States also lacks adequate consular resources and authorities to facilitate temporary evacuation of human rights defenders facing immediate lethal danger. While the United States possesses multiple tools to hold perpetrators of reprisals accountable, including sanctions, export controls, visa restrictions, and diplomatic pressure, the United States deploys such tools unevenly and without clear connections to a broader strategic framework to strengthen protections for human rights defenders.

Given the dramatic increase in attacks on human rights defenders globally, the current approach by the United States Government to address such attacks is insufficient to adequately respond to the threats human rights defenders face, weakening the ability of the United States to advance human rights and democratic principles, respond to the climate crisis, counter corruption, and combat transnational crime.