[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2587 Introduced in House (IH)]


104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2587

 To carry out the international obligations of the United States under 
 the Geneva Conventions to provide criminal penalties for certain war 
                                crimes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 7, 1995

  Mr. Jones introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To carry out the international obligations of the United States under 
 the Geneva Conventions to provide criminal penalties for certain war 
                                crimes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``War Crimes Act of 1995''.

SEC. 2. CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR CERTAIN WAR CRIMES.

    (a) In General.--Title 18, United States Code, is amended by 
inserting after chapter 117 the following:

                       ``CHAPTER 118--WAR CRIMES

``Sec.
``2401. War crimes.
``Sec. 2401. War crimes
    ``(a) In General.--Whoever, whether inside or outside the United 
States, commits a grave breach of the Geneva conventions where the 
victim of such breach is member of the armed forces of the United 
States or a citizen of the United States, shall be fined under this 
title or imprisoned for life or any term or years, or both, and if 
death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of 
death.
    ``(b) Definitions.--As used in this section, the term `grave breach 
of the Geneva conventions' means conduct defined as a grave breach in 
any of the international conventions relating to the laws of warfare 
signed at Geneva 12 August 1949 or any protocol to any such convention, 
to which the United States is a party.''
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of chapters for part I of title 
18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating 
to chapter 117 the following new item:

``118. War crimes...........................................    2401''.
                                 <all>