II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 2689
To provide for the appointment of a Special Envoy for Belarus.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JULY27, 2023
Mrs. S
HAHEENintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To provide for the appointment of a Special Envoy for
Belarus.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR BELARUS. 3
(a) S
PECIALENVOY.—The President shall appoint a 4
Special Envoy for Belarus within the Department of State 5
(referred to in this section as the ‘‘Special Envoy’’). 6
(b) Q
UALIFICATIONS.—The Special Envoy— 7
(1) should be a person of recognized distinction 8
in the field of European security, geopolitics, democ-9
racy, and human rights; and 10
(2) may be a career foreign service officer. 11
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•S 2689 IS
(c) CENTRALOBJECTIVE.—The central objective of 1
the Special Envoy is to coordinate and promote efforts— 2
(1) to improve respect for the fundamental 3
human rights of the people of Belarus; 4
(2) to sustain focus on the national security im-5
plications, for the United States, of Belarus’s polit-6
ical and military alignment; and 7
(3) to respond to the political, economic, and 8
security impacts of events in Belarus on neighboring 9
countries and the wider region. 10
(d) D
UTIES ANDRESPONSIBILITIES.—The Special 11
Envoy shall— 12
(1) engage in discussions with Belarusian offi-13
cials regarding human rights and political, economic, 14
and security issues in Belarus; 15
(2) support international efforts to promote 16
human rights and political freedoms in Belarus, in-17
cluding coordination and dialogue between the 18
United States and the United Nations, the Organi-19
zation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the 20
European Union, Belarus, and the other countries in 21
Eastern Europe; 22
(3) consult with nongovernmental organizations 23
that have attempted to address human rights and 24
political and economic instability in Belarus; 25
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(4) make recommendations regarding the fund-1
ing of activities promoting human rights, democracy, 2
the rule of law, and the development of a market 3
economy in Belarus; 4
(5) review strategies for improving protection of 5
human rights in Belarus, including technical train-6
ing and exchange programs; 7
(6) develop an action plan for holding to ac-8
count the perpetrators of the human rights viola-9
tions documented in the United Nations High Com-10
missioner for Human Rights report on the situation 11
of human rights in Belarus in the run-up to the 12
2020 presidential election and its aftermath (Human 13
Rights Council Resolution 49/36); 14
(7) engage with member countries of the North 15
Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organization for 16
Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Euro-17
pean Union with respect to the implications of 18
Belarus’s political and security alignment for trans-19
atlantic security; and 20
(8) to work within the Department of State and 21
among partnering countries to sustain focus on the 22
political situation in Belarus. 23
(e) R
OLE.—The position of Special Envoy— 24
(1) shall be a full-time position; 25
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(2) may not be combined with any other posi-1
tion within the Department of State; 2
(3) shall only exist for the period during which 3
United States diplomatic operations in Belarus at 4
the United States Embassy in Minsk have been sus-5
pended; and 6
(4) shall oversee the operations and personnel 7
of the Belarus Affairs Unit of the Department of 8
State. 9
(f) R
EPORT ONACTIVITIES.—Not later than 180 10
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annu-11
ally thereafter for the following 5 years, the Secretary of 12
State, in consultation with the Special Envoy, shall submit 13
to the appropriate congressional committees a report that 14
describes the activities undertaken pursuant to subsection 15
(d) during the reporting period. 16
(g) T
ERMINATION.—The position of Special Envoy 17
for Belarus Affairs and the authorities provided by this 18
section shall terminate on the date that is 5 years after 19
the date of the enactment of this Act. 20
Æ
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