Hon. Frank Heinrich became a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 2007. In the parliamentary elections in the years 2009, 2013 and 2017 he secured the direct mandate for the constituency Chemnitz. In the Bundestag, he served as a member of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and the group’s deputy speaker on the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid. He was also a member of the Committee on Labour and Social Affairs. He remained an MP until 2021.
He was also the Equality and Non-Discrimination Rapporteur for the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), where he led efforts focused on the online sexual exploitation of children and women. The resolution which was adopted within the Council of Europe called for “comprehensive sexuality education in schools to become the main source of information on sexuality for young people because it would prevent the spread of unreliable and potentially harmful information by other sources such as pornography.”
Mr. Heinrich is a trained theologian and social worker, and previously worked as a Salvation Army officer and the head of the Salvation Army in Chemnitz. When he entered into politics he was confronted with the realities of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. These statistics led him to make social issues and human rights a central focus in his life.
As a member of the German Bundestag he focused primarily on issues of human rights such as trafficking in human beings, children’s rights, religious freedom and the disappearance of people. He has also focused on the regional areas of Africa, the Middle East as well as Central Asia. Combatting trafficking in human beings remains one of his primary focus areas.
