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In the News

September 26, 2025

More members of the United States Congress have voiced support for Tamil demands for justice following the discovery of mass graves in Chemmani, as pressure mounts on Sri Lanka to allow an international investigation into atrocities committed during the armed conflict.

The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission stated,

“Another mass grave has been discovered in Chemmani. The Sri Lankan government must place the rights of victims and their families at the forefront of its investigation and engage with the int’l community to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable.”


September 26, 2025

A congressional hearing hosted by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission is warning that a surge in violence against Colombian human rights defenders and social leaders threatens to unravel years of progress toward peace.


September 26, 2025

The US Congress may soon urge President Donald Trump’s administration to consider imposing sanctions on countries that suppress religious freedom and violate human rights, Republican Congressman Christopher H. Smith suggested during a congressional hearing on Pakistan on Tuesday.


October 5, 2022

The Charity & Security Network applauded the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for hosting the October 4, 2022 hearing "Considerations on Economic Sanctions." The Network, a resource and advocacy center for nonprofit organizations, encouraged the TLHRC to follow up with additional hearings to hear from witnesses who have experienced the collateral impacts of U.S. sanctions themselves.


May 20, 2021
A congressional panel, during a May 18 hearing, weighed the possibility of a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing to call attention to China’s long-standing human rights abuses.

May 18, 2021
Members of Congress’ Human Rights Commission, in a rare display of bipartisan unity, on Tuesday called on the International Olympic Committee to remove the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing, accusing the IOC and its corporate partners of being complicit in human rights violations by the Chinese government.

March 25, 2021
Experts told the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a House body that focuses on human rights around the world, that the Global Magnitsky Act had been a game-changer since it was passed in 2016. The law provides sweeping human-rights and anti-corruption sanctions authorities to the executive branch, but it will expire in late 2022.

March 14, 2021
The bipartisan Human Rights Commission of the U.S. House of Representatives has urged the government of Belarus to immediately release jailed blogger and RFE/RL consultant Ihar Losik and other "political prisoners."

February 22, 2021
Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Chris Smith (D-NJ), the co-chairs of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the House, sponsored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that requires the Department of Defense to report to Congress on actions taken in response to a request by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter in 2016 to review rules of engagement, directives, and practices to ensure that they conform to principles of protection of medical care in armed conflict based on the Geneva Conventions.

February 27, 2020
Russia’s human rights record, including its history of mistreating religious minorities, is worsening, according to testimony at a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday (Feb. 27).

Contact The Commission

Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
4150 O'Neill House Office Building
200 C Street SW
Washington, D.C. 20515
United States of America

Phone: +1 (202) 225-3599
TLHRC@mail.house.gov

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