H.R. 6151 — Global Respect Act

This section sets forth 11 congressional findings on global human rights protections for LGBTQI individuals, including positive developments in some countries; ongoing violence and discrimination; criminalization of consensual same-sex relations in approximately one-third of countries (with the death penalty possible in 12); barriers to HIV/AIDS treatment; suppression of LGBTQI events; impunity for perpetrators; promotion of negative attitudes by government officials; and complicity by authorities in abuses.

This section establishes a sanctions program requiring the President, not later than 180 days after enactment and biannually thereafter, to transmit to the appropriate congressional committees a list of foreign persons determined, based on credible information, to be responsible for or complicit in human rights violations against persons based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics—including torture or cruel treatment; prolonged detention without charges and trial; enforced disappearances; or other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, or security. The list must be published in unclassified form in the Federal Register (with possible classified annexes if vital to U.S. national security interests and not undermining the section's purpose), updated as new information becomes available, and allow removals if the person is exonerated, appropriately prosecuted, demonstrates significant behavioral change with consequences paid, or if removal serves vital U.S. national security interests (with reports to committees at least 15 days prior). This section further requires public guidance for submitting information on potential listees via U.S. diplomatic and consular posts; consideration of information and written requests from chairs or ranking members of the appropriate congressional committees (with responses within 120 days, potentially classified); and, upon removal of a committee-requested person, provision of supporting information to the relevant chair or ranking member. This section renders aliens on the list inadmissible to the United States; ineligible for visas, admission, parole, or other benefits under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA); and subject to visa revocation under INA section 221(i) (8 U.S.C. 1201(i)) by the issuing consular officer, Secretary of State, or Secretary of Homeland Security (or designees), with such revocations taking immediate effect and automatically cancelling any other valid visas or entry documents.

This section requires the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor to designate one or more bureau-based senior officers responsible for tracking violence, criminalization, and restrictions on fundamental freedoms in foreign countries based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics. The section further amends annual human rights reporting requirements under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 by (1) adding a new paragraph (13) to Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (i.e., section 116(d)) requiring, wherever applicable, information on such violence or discrimination affecting fundamental freedoms, including widespread or systematic violations of the freedoms of expression, association, or assembly; and (2) inserting a similar requirement in reports on human rights practices in countries receiving security assistance (i.e., section 502B(b)). (As background, these congressionally mandated reports inform oversight of foreign assistance conditioned on human rights records.)