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Press

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, today released a statement following the announcement of Ambassador Princeton Lyman’s resignation as the president’s special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan. In the events leading up to the 2011 referendum and subsequent independence of South...

WASHINGTON – Following the Senate’s approval by a vote of 92-4 of a measure to normalize trade relations with Russia and remove prohibitive, antiquated trade barriers today, Senator John Kerry pointed towards new export opportunities for businesses in Massachusetts. In July, Kerry joined Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus in...

Washington, DC – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement today after Senate Republicans voted down the “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,” an international agreement for protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities, by a vote of 61 to 38.  The...

Today's the vote that will decide the Disabilities Treaty. We're just a few short hours away. I was up late last night getting ready for the final floor debate, and I searched Twitter to see what folks were saying.There's obviously a lot of good and needed activism happening, and that's gratifying. But there's also a lot of misinformation being...

Watching cable television you might not know it, but the Senate is on the eve of a major decision that - either way - will ripple around the globe. It's time for action in the Senate on the Disabilities Treaty, and it's time for grassroots action to help push us across the finish line. Here in the Senate tomorrow, with all the world's eyes...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, today made the following statement in honor of World AIDS Day, recognized on Saturday, December 1, 2012. “For years, this was an annual day of mourning.  Now it is arguably a day of hope, as long as we do not abandon the fight.  The...

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, made the following statement today welcoming the appointment of Ambassador Mark Dybul, former United States Global AIDS Coordinator, as Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. “The Global Fund’s...

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, made the following statement today on the recent attack of Congolese doctor, Dr. Denis Mukwege. “The Democratic Republic of Congo has seen far more than its share of violence.  A recent attack on a humanitarian underscores the consequences of the...

Washington, DC – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement in response to the release of documents, concerning the recent events in Libya, by the House Oversight Committee. "The wholesale release of State Department documents by the House Oversight Committee has exposed...

Washington, DC – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement in response to the call made by Rep. King (R-NY) for Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, to resign.   "I'm deeply disturbed by efforts to find the politics instead of finding the facts in this...

  Washington, DC – U.S. Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, made the following statement today after the announcement from Addis Ababa that Sudan and South Sudan have signed an agreement on several of the most contentious issues between the newly divided countries. “It appears that Sudan and South Sudan...

Washington, DC – Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, made the following statement after President Obama’s Executive Order today strengthening the U.S. government’s approach to human trafficking.   The President discussed the scourge of modern-day slavery that plagues almost every country in the...

Washington, DC – This morning, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) delivered the following statement on the nomination of the Honorable Robert Stephen Beecroft, of California, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Iraq. “Our Embassy in Baghdad, the consulates in Basra and Erbil and other offices supporting the...

Washington, DC – At a business meeting led by Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) this afternoon, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the following legislation, resolutions, and nominations en bloc by voice vote: S. 2215, the Increasing American Jobs Through Greater Exports to Africa Act of 2012, with an amendment in the nature of a...

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today introduced a resolution to honor the contributions of Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari as Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and in promoting the legitimate rights and aspirations of the Tibetan people. Senators Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Dianne...

WASHINGTON, DC – The Senate tonight passed a resolution by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.),  Chairman and Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations Committee, commending the four American public servants who died in Benghazi, Libya, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, for their tireless...

Washington, DC - Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, made the following statement today in response to the violence that took place at the Egyptian and Libyan Embassies, resulting in the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other American embassy personnel. “The deaths of Ambassador Stevens...

Washington, DC - Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, today responded to the transfer and release of Ramil Safarov, an Azeri soldier who hacked an Armenian soldier to death in his sleep at a Partnership for Peace exercise in 2004.  The Hungarians released Safarov to Azerbaijan where he was set free and treated like...

Washington, DC - Senator Kerry made the following comments today after Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced upcoming peace negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  “Colombians have suffered for far too long from the violence and insecurity associated with its decades-long internal armed...

Washington, DC - Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, made the following statement today after the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel, led by President Thabo Mbeki, announced that South Sudan and Sudan have reached an agreement on the transit of oil. "A lot of people said this couldn't happen and they...