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119-hr-10008119th Congress

Turkey Human Rights Promotion Act of 2026

Sponsored By: Representative Titus, Dina [D-NV-1]

Introduced

Summary

Protecting prisoners of conscience and political prisoners. This bill would make that the central aim of U.S. policy toward Turkey by directing diplomacy, reporting, and targeted measures to secure releases and curb repression.

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  • Families and detainees: Detainees held under counterterrorism authorities for political reasons would be treated as prisoners of conscience unless clear, probative evidence shows criminal misconduct. The Secretary of State must press for unconditional release and expungement and can fund civil society that documents abuses and helps victims.
  • Journalists and civil society: Independent journalists, exiled media, and digital‑rights groups would get expanded U.S. support for secure communications, legal aid, and human‑rights education. The bill directs U.S. opposition to exports of surveillance technologies and to Turkish laws or requests that block online accounts or restrict streaming.
  • U.S. policy, sanctions, and security assistance: The measure authorizes sanctions and visa bans on officials tied to political detentions and transnational repression and bars most security assistance until Turkey demonstrates measurable reforms, while allowing a presidential waiver for vital national security interests. It also requires a report within 180 days and annually for five years tracking prisoners, censorship, renditions, and U.S. measures.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

3 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.

More support for Turkish journalists

This bill would direct the Secretary of State and USAID to expand help for civil society and independent journalists in Turkey. It would fund documentation of rights abuses, advocacy, legal literacy, and secure communications for at-risk communities. The bill would support current and former prisoners of conscience and would ask U.S. mission staff to observe politically motivated trials, including in southeast Turkey. U.S. diplomats would be told to press Turkey to free unfairly detained journalists and to warn and assist journalists in danger regardless of citizenship.

Sanctions, visas, and export limits

This bill would direct the President to use Global Magnitsky sanctions on Turkish officials who are responsible for detaining prisoners of conscience, jailing journalists for political reasons, or committing other gross human rights abuses if Turkey does not promptly act. It would tell the Secretary of State to impose Khashoggi-style visa bans on people acting for the Turkish government who engage in extraterritorial counter-dissident activities, and on family members as appropriate. The bill would also instruct U.S. executive directors at international financial institutions to oppose loans or grants that enable human rights abuses in Turkey. It would declare U.S. policy to oppose exports or licensing of surveillance technologies to Turkey that could be used to monitor or repress journalists and minorities.

Limits and waiver on security aid

This bill would bar obligating or spending Foreign Military Financing, Foreign Military Sales, and other security aid to Turkey unless the Secretary of State certifies four human rights steps. The Secretary would need to certify that Turkey reduced prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, stopped misusing counterterrorism and disinformation laws, moved to comply with European Court of Human Rights rulings (including Kavala and Demirtas), and ceased systematic transnational repression. The Secretary could waive the ban case-by-case for a vital U.S. national security interest. Any waiver would require a written determination and a report describing the national security justification and the reforms sought.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

Titus, Dina [D-NV-1]

NV • D

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

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