Mike Lawler Questions Witnesses About Transnational Repression Efforts In The US & Elsewhere

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At a House Foreign Relations Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) spoke to witnesses about transnational repression.

Transcript

00:00Representative Jacobs, and now we recognize Representative Mike Lawler from the state of New York for five minutes.

00:07Thank you, Madam Chairs. You may know I currently co-chair the Moldova Caucus and have since I joined Congress.

00:17A place like Moldova really exemplifies how some good governance and anti-corruption assistance can actually go a long way.

00:25Can you discuss some of the impactful programming that the U.S. has supported in Moldova in the last decade?

00:35I'll ask any of you to opine.

00:38You guys are there, right?

00:39I think I'm going to defer to Dr. Quirk on that one because I don't have the details on Moldova.

00:46What I can say, broadly speaking, support we provide in countries like Moldova is to support the infrastructure of democracy,

00:54strong political parties, civil society, legislatures, so that they can rule their own country and govern in a way that makes the country stable.

01:04I mean, one more specific example that, as you know, there was an extremely important election in Moldova last year

01:13that Putin tried to undermine in every way that he could.

01:16That election was observed, as I recall, by NDI and IRI, observers on the ground, all funded 100 percent by the U.S. government.

01:26If there were an election in Moldova today of equal importance, we could not deploy a single person because all of that money is frozen.

01:33Mr. Quirk, to that end, can you share, from your perspective, how election monitoring is actually helpful?

01:45And are there ways to make these trips and verifications more effective?

01:51Happy to.

01:52IRI, along with our NDI colleagues, have provided election observation services for hundreds of elections.

01:58These efforts provide an independent check from pre-election, election day, post-election,

02:06to ensure that the processes are free, fair, transparent,

02:11absent of which ruling or opposition party might be inclined to conduct fraud.

02:16And moreover, following the election process, the reports indicate areas in which the country should improve their electoral processes

02:22so it is even better the next time around.

02:25Transnational repression, obviously, when governments reach across borders to harass and silence dissidents,

02:35has become a significant human rights concern in recent years.

02:39Repressive regimes abuse Interpol red notices and use overseas law enforcement offices

02:45in an effort to control citizens living abroad.

02:48NGOs report that there have been over 1,000 cases in the last decade perpetuated by over 44 countries,

02:56with the most common perpetrators being China, Russia, Turkey, and Egypt.

03:01What transnational activities by authoritarian governments are most concerning from a human rights perspective,

03:07and how could the State Department respond to that?

03:12Mr. Leller, can I address that?

03:14I mean, I'll give you a really good example.

03:18Overseas Chinese police stations, right?

03:21And they exist here.

03:22We've had them in New York.

03:23That's what I mean.

03:24They have them in Minneapolis, St. Paul.

03:27You know, so when countries transcend their borders, and it's not just countries, I might add.

03:34Transnational organized criminal groups like Boko Haram, you know,

03:38the various gangs that control our border, you know, those are all very concerning.

03:44And so the question becomes, what's the best diplomatic response?

03:49You know, and then how do you back that up with some serious money?

03:52I mean, that is the, nobody's arguing here that we shouldn't do this.

03:57In fact, having helped run a statewide election in my home state of Ohio,

04:02I know exactly how elections get run.

04:05I know the machines.

04:06I know the counting.

04:07I know all the things.

04:09By the time you get to election observers, I think election observers are great.

04:14You know, but many boards of election in this country get nervous when we bring in observers.

04:21You know, that's our problem.

04:23You know, what we need to do is bring in election officials and watch how the election actually happens.

04:28You know, and that's, that's not just observing.

04:31It's, it's, it's a long process over a couple of years.

04:36Mr. Malonowski.

04:39Yeah, so it's most disturbing when it happens on our soil, obviously.

04:42It's the countries you mentioned.

04:43I would say Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi, and a number of other countries.

04:49When I was in Congress, this was a priority, pushing the State Department to do more about this.

04:54One success we had was that they, they started including examples of transnational repression

05:02in the annual human rights reports on every country in the world.

05:06Those are important because it's the one time in the year when the State Department is forced

05:09to be honest about everybody, whether it's comfortable or not.

05:12And I'm, I'm afraid the news we've gotten is that the administration has decided to take out

05:17from the annual human rights reports that section on transnational repression.

05:22So I would encourage you to take that up with them before that decision is final.

05:28Appreciate it.

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