Sec. 2. Findings and statement of policy
329 words·~1 min read·
/bill/119/hr/7622/ih/section-2A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress finds the following: For nearly 5 decades, the people of Iran have endured brutal repression under the Islamic Republic, a regime that denies basic human rights, silences dissidents, and responds to peaceful protest with violence. The people of Iran have courageously taking to the streets to demand economic opportunity, human rights, dignity, and freedom. The Islamic Republic has responded to the ongoing protests with brutality by reportedly killing over 30,000 people and wounding thousands more, arresting approximate 40,000, and restricting internet access and telephone lines.
The people of Iran are in part protesting the Islamic regime’s economic mismanagement, corruption, internal suppression, and unjust executions. Access to free expression, open information, and uncensored communication are fundamental human rights. The inspiring 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests demanded an end to the Islamic Republic and its violence, including against Iranian women and ethnic minorities. The barbaric so-called morality police and other arms of state suppression have a lengthy history of repressing the Iranian people’s fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assemble, the freedom of religion, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights.
The Islamic regime has engaged in systematic efforts to intimidate, harass, detain, and harm political dissidents, activists, and journalists both within Iran and beyond its borders. The people of Iran deserve the right to dignity, democracy, and self-determination and to be free from the brutality of the Islamic Republic. It shall be the policy of the United States to— recognize the right of the Iranian people to freely determine, through free and fair elections, the nature of their political regime; facilitate the immediate expansion of unrestricted internet access and civilian lines of communication across Iran; fully enforce sanctions against regime human rights violators and their family members, including any family members and associates in the United States that continue to directly or indirectly provide support to the regime; and work in coordination with its allies to consider and implement all necessary and appropriate measures to deter further lethal violence against protesters.