[Pages S6850-S6851]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TEXT OF AMENDMENTS

  SA 3312. Mr. WYDEN proposed an amendment to the resolution S. Res. 
74, condemning the Government of Iran's state-sponsored persecution of 
the Baha'i minority and its continued violation of the International 
Covenants on Human Rights; as follows:

       Strike the preamble and insert the following:
       Whereas, in 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 
     2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 
     2018, 2020, and 2022, Congress declared that it deplored the 
     religious persecution by the Government of Iran of the Baha'i 
     community and would hold the Government of Iran responsible 
     for upholding the rights of all Iranian nationals, including 
     members of the Baha'i faith;
       Whereas, since 1979, Iranian authorities have killed or 
     executed more than 200 Baha'i leaders and more than 10,000 
     Baha'is have been dismissed from government and university 
     jobs;
       Whereas June 18, 2023, marked the 40th anniversary of the 
     execution of 10 Baha'i women by the Government of Iran, each 
     witnessing the hanging of those hanged before her in a final 
     failed attempt to induce abandonment of their faith after 
     over 6 months of imprisonment and violent abuse, with the 
     youngest only 17 years old;
       Whereas, on December 19, 2023, the United Nations General 
     Assembly adopted a resolution (A/C.3/78/L.41) calling on Iran 
     to carry out wide-ranging reforms and expressing serious 
     concerns for its escalating human rights abuses, including--
       (1) ``severe limitations and increasing restrictions on the 
     right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or 
     belief'';
       (2) ``restrictions on the establishment of places of 
     worship, undue restrictions on burials carried out in 
     accordance with religious tenets, attacks against places of 
     worship and burial'';
       (3) ``increased harassment, intimidation, persecution, 
     arbitrary arrest, and detention of, and incitement to hatred 
     that leads to violence against, persons belonging to 
     recognized and unrecognized religious minorities, including 
     Christians (particularly converts from Islam), Gonabadi 
     Dervishes, Jews, Sufi Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Yarsanis, 
     Zoroastrians, and in particular, Baha'is'';
       (4) ``denial of and restrictions on access to education, 
     including for members of the Baha'i faith''; and
       (5) ``particular'' persecution of members of the Baha'i 
     community ``who have been subjected to a continued increase 
     in persecution, including attacks, harassment and targeting. 
     . .on account of their faith and have been reportedly 
     subjected to mass arrests and lengthy prison sentences, as 
     well as the arrest of prominent members and increased 
     confiscation and destruction of property'';
       Whereas, in the 2024 Annual Report of the United States 
     Commission on International Religious Freedom issued in May 
     2024, it is reported that in 2023--
       (1) the Government of Iran ``conducted individual and mass 
     arrests of Baha'is across Iran taking them to undisclosed 
     locations and imposing excessively long prison sentences'';
       (2) ``security officials beat and brutalized Baha'is during 
     raids and searches of private homes'';
       (3) ``security forces arrested scores of Baha'is in cities 
     including Hamadan, Mehrshahr, Yazd, Karaj, Alborz, and 
     Tehran'';
       (4) the ``government has targeted Baha'i women in 
     particular'' and that ``[a]pproximately two-thirds of Iranian 
     Baha'i prisoners are women'';
       (5) authorities ``targeted Baha'i cemeteries in Arak, 
     Alborz, and Golestan''; and
       (6) local ``municipalities seized and confiscated Baha'i 
     land, restricted Baha'i access to burial grounds, and 
     declared intentions to sell Baha'i-owned property exclusively 
     to Muslims.'';
       Whereas the Iran section of the Department of State's 2022 
     Report on International Religious Freedom issued in May 2023 
     provides, in part--
       (1) ``[I]n July and August, security forces in cities 
     across the country conducted multiple raids of Baha'i homes, 
     confiscated property deemed `illegitimate wealth', and 
     arrested Baha'is in their homes or workplaces on 
     unsubstantiated charges including `causing intellectual and 
     ideological insecurity in Muslim society.' '';
       (2) ``Authorities reportedly continued to deny members of 
     unrecognized religious minority groups access to education 
     and government employment unless they declared themselves as 
     belonging to one of the country's recognized religions on 
     their application forms. UN experts reported universities 
     rejected more than 90 Baha'i students between January and 
     August.''; and
       (3) ``Government officials and government-affiliated 
     organizations continued to disseminate anti-Baha'i and 
     antisemitic messages using traditional and social media.'';
       Whereas, in response to a surge in persecution in June and 
     July 2022, involving the subjection of over 100 Baha'is to 
     arrests, arraignments, sentencing, and raids on their homes 
     and businesses across Iran, including the sentencing in June 
     of 26 individuals in the city of Shiraz to a combined total 
     of 85 years in prison, the Department of State's Office of 
     International Religious Freedom issued a statement on August 
     2, 2022, indicating that ``[a]mid a continued rise in 
     arrests, sentences, and imprisonments, the U.S. urges Iran to 
     halt its ongoing oppression of the Baha'i community and honor 
     its international obligations to respect the right of all 
     Iranians to freedom of religion or belief'';
       Whereas, on November 21, 2022, Mahvash Sabet and Fariba 
     Kamalabadi, 2 former members of the informal 7-person 
     leadership group of the Baha'is of Iran, who each served 10-
     year sentences from 2008 to 2018, and have been detained 
     since July 31, 2022, in Evin prison, were sentenced to 10 
     years in prison each after a summary trial lasting 1 hour;
       Whereas, on December 11, 2022, the Baha'i International 
     Community organization stated that ``Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the 
     Nobel laureate and defence lawyer for Mahvash and Fariba 
     during their first trial, said in 2008 that `not a shred of 
     evidence' was offered to prove the national security charges 
     or other allegations. Nor was any new evidence forthcoming at 
     this latest trial'';
       Whereas, on January 12, 2024, the Baha'i International 
     Community organization reported increasing incidents of 
     persecution accompanied by intensified violence perpetrated 
     against the Baha'i community by the Government of Iran, for 
     example--
       (1) ``since the beginning of October [2023] more than 200 
     incidents of persecution, including over 50 arrests and 
     imprisonments, have occurred in various cities such as 
     Shiraz, Yazd, Isfahan, Hamadan, and Karaj'';
       (2) government agents have perpetrated ``increasingly 
     violent home raids, disproportionately affecting women and 
     the elderly, and have even resulted in hospitalizations and 
     traumatic separations of mothers from their children. 
     Notably, over two-thirds of those arrested and detained have 
     been women, predominantly in their twenties and thirties, 
     highlighting the escalation of attacks against women in 
     recent months.''; and
       (3) government agents have instigated a ``conspicuous rise 
     in hate speech, where Baha'is have been accused of being 
     behind the September 2022 protests, promoting permissiveness, 
     being against Islam and Shiism, being spies for Israel and 
     the West, and being part of a political movement that seeks 
     to undermine the state'';
       Whereas Iran is a member of the United Nations and a 
     signatory to both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 
     and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 
     among other international human rights treaties, without 
     reservation;
       Whereas section 105 of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, 
     Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (22 U.S.C. 8514) 
     authorizes the President to impose sanctions on individuals 
     who are ``responsible for or complicit in, or responsible for 
     ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, the commission 
     of serious human rights abuses against citizens of

[[Page S6851]]

     Iran or their family members on or after June 12, 2009''; and
       Whereas the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights 
     Act of 2012 (Public Law 112-158) amends and expands the 
     authorities established under the Comprehensive Iran 
     Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (Public 
     Law 111-195) to sanction Iranian human rights abusers: Now, 
     therefore, be it
                                 ______
                                 
  SA 3313. Mr. VAN HOLLEN (for Mrs. Blackburn) proposed an amendment to 
the bill S. 4212, to amend the Visit America Act to promote music 
tourism, and for other purposes; as follows:

       On page 6, line 9, strike ``Section 600 of the Visit 
     America Act'' and insert ``Section 600 of title VI of 
     division BB of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023''.

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