U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren of Illinois believes that everyone has a responsibility to be a voice for those who are being abused, neglected or persecuted. It’s not something the GOP lawmaker just says — he walks the walk, too.
“Part of it is being a husband and father; that certainly makes me, makes all of us more sensitive to human injustices,” Hultgren told The Ripon Advance last week.
The plight of people like his great-grandparents, who immigrated to America from Sweden seeking to practice their faith freely, he said, sparked his initial interest in religious freedom, which naturally expanded into a concern for human rights. Now both have become woven into the fabric of his political career.
“My family, my father and my heritage have all lead to my interest in human rights,” Hultgren said.
Most recently in May, he and a bipartisan group of congressmen introduced H.Res. 319 to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to global religious freedom and to urge the Trump administration to implement existing laws and new policies, such as appointing a new ambassador-at-large and a special advisor for International Religious Freedom, and developing and integrating a national security strategy on international religious freedom.
“Numerous reports confirm rising attacks, restrictions and harassment on religious minorities of many faiths by state and non-state actors. We’ve got to stop this trend by quickly developing a strategic focus,” Hultgren said. “It’s up to the U.S. to stand up and commit to vulnerable populations around the world.”
On the human rights front, Hultgren is co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC) and a commissioner on both the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) and the U.S. Helsinki Commission, also known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The bipartisan TLHRC, established by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008, is charged with promoting, defending and advocating for international human rights both within and outside of Congress. Part of the commission’s job is to closely collaborate with the president and executive branch on related topics, as well.
Most recently, for instance, Hultgren and TLHRC co-chairman U.S. Rep. James McGovern, (D-MA), along with 38 other congressional members, sought accountability for the attacks on protestors carried out by the security detail of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a spring trip to Washington. They urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to expel from the United States any of the Turkish personnel based in the U.S. who were involved in the attacks.
The CECC, created by Congress in 2000, has a legislative mandate to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China. For example, in advance of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s April visit to the United States, CECC commissioners including Hultgren, launched the Free China’s Heroes initiative to highlight the individual cases of people who are imprisoned, detained or who have disappeared in the country. The CECC said that efforts by both the Chinese government and Communist Party to silence dissent, suppress human rights advocacy and control civil society, as documented in its 2016 Annual Report to Congress, have “continued apace in 2017.”
“We are making sure we talk about these individuals and recognize them as being important,” Hultgren told The Ripon Advance.
In April, Hultgren and McGovern introduced H.R. 1872, the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate. Both would promote access of Americans to Tibetan areas of China, which is routinely denied by Chinese authorities.
“The Chinese government is certainly aware of what the U.S. is doing and they are listening and paying attention. There is pressure for them to act appropriately,” Hultgren said.
On the independent Helsinki Commission, Hultgren and his colleagues also monitor human rights, but with a focus on compliance with the Helsinki Accords, a politically binding agreement for cooperation and security between the 57 nations in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) region.
The commission will hold a hearing June 6 on Capitol Hill that delves into the priorities and challenges facing OSCE, including Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine; increased regional violence stemming from terrorism, hate crimes and other injustices; and human trafficking, among other issues.
“These are some of the same hot button issues that are occurring all over the world,” Hultgren said. “We need to be vigilant everywhere there are human rights violations.”
But there has been progress, he said. In February, Hultgren was part of a team of 10 members of Congress who visited the Sahrawi refugee camps, where Sahrawi refugees have lived in exile for 40 years under Moroccan occupation. The delegation’s “visit of support” was part of an African tour under the Trump administration.
“I wish we could see more progress. We are hearing about more progress. When we do speak up, there are nations that listen,” Hultgren said. “The U.S. can be a strong global leader on this front. There’s always more we can do.”