In the News

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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).

Lawyers and human rights advocates have testified at a Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on Kashmir, demanding the release of detainees, giving foreign journalists and legal observers access to the majority-Muslim region, and calling for an end to the communication blackout that has been in place since August 5.

A discussion on human rights defenders and the risks and opportunities of new technology, featuring a number of legislators including Rep. Jim McGovern, Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, brought together human rights defenders, organizations as well as those involved in technology, to gain a better understanding of the promise and perils new technology has for human rights.