By Julian Pecquet
January 18, 2014, 02:20 pm
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are teaming up to bring the plight of human rights defenders to light by adopting prisoners of conscience from around the world.
Twenty-one House members have agreed to sponsor a total of 19 imprisoned human rights defenders from Iran, China and other repressive countries. The photos can be seen here.
“This was what was done by the Congress and by the Reagan Administration during the 1980s,” Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, told The Hill. “Every time Secretary [of State George] Shultz would go to Moscow, he would meet with the families of the dissidents at the American embassy.”
Wolf and his Democratic co-chairman, Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), hope to replicate a time before the end of the Cold War when Soviet dissidents were almost household names. They launched the adoption program in December 2012 in conjunction with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and Amnesty International USA.
“One day that a prisoner of conscience is imprisoned is one day too long,” said Robert George, the chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. “The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom looks forward to continuing to work with the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and Members of Congress on the Defending Freedom Project to shine a light on those imprisoned around the world for their beliefs.”
