Female senators call for release of international female political prisoners

All 20 women in the Senate are urging countries across the globe to free their female political prisoners.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) introduced a resolution co-sponsored by the rest of the women in the Senate supporting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power’s #FreeThe20 campaign and preceding a United Nations conference on gender equality.

Power launched the initiative at the beginning of the month to bring awareness to women around the world who have been wrongly imprisoned.

The resolution also says that some countries attending Sunday’s Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Commitment to Action hosted by the United Nations imprison women for “exercising universal human rights.”

The resolution highlights a number of women who have been unjustly imprisoned. For example, Rasha Chorbaji was arrested in Syria in 2014 after trying to get a passport with three of her children because her husband opposed the regime, according to the resolution.

“As 20 women serving in the United States Senate we stand unified in calling on governments to recognize the universal human rights of women and to release women who have been imprisoned unjustly for exercising those rights,” the senators said in a press release. “Our message is simple — world leaders and foreign governments, including those attending the U.N.-hosted meeting this month, should empower women, not imprison them.”