[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 467 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 467

                  Declaring genocide in Darfur, Sudan.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 24, 2004

Mr. Payne (for himself, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Wynn, Ms. Lee, 
 Ms. Majette, Mrs. Christensen, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Ms. Waters, Mr. 
 Jackson of Illinois, Ms. Norton, Mr. Scott of Georgia, Ms. Millender-
 McDonald, Mr. Davis of Alabama, Mr. Rush, Mr. Towns, Ms. Schakowsky, 
  Mr. Fattah, Mr. Owens, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Ms. 
 Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Mr. Watt, Mr. Meeks of New York, Ms. 
  Corrine Brown of Florida, Ms. Watson, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. 
Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Clyburn, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mr. 
    Ford, Ms. Kilpatrick, Mr. Tancredo, and Mr. Bishop of Georgia) 
 submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to 
                the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
                  Declaring genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

Whereas Article 1 of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and 
        Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states that ``the contracting 
        parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in 
        time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to 
        prevent and to punish'';
Whereas Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the 
        Crime of Genocide declares that ``in the present Convention, genocide 
        means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in 
        whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as 
        such: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or 
        mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the 
        group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical 
        destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing measures intended to 
        prevent births within the group; and (e) forcibly transferring children 
        of the group to another group'';
Whereas Article 3 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the 
        Crime of Genocide affirms that the ``following acts shall be punishable: 
        (a) genocide; (b) conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) direct and public 
        incitement to commit genocide; (d) attempt to committed genocide; and 
        (e) complicit in genocide'';
Whereas in Darfur, Sudan, an estimated 30,000 innocent civilians have been 
        brutally murdered, more than 130,000 people have been forced from their 
        homes and have fled to neighboring Chad, and more than 1,000,000 people 
        have been internally displaced; and
Whereas in March 2004 the United Nations Resident Humanitarian Coordinator 
        stated: ``[T]he war in Darfur started off in a small way last year but 
        it has progressively gotten worse. A predominant feature of this is that 
        the brunt is being borne by civilians. This includes vulnerable women 
        and children . . . The violence in Darfur appears to be particularly 
        directed at a specific group based on their ethnic identity and appears 
        to be systemized.'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress--
            (1) declares that the atrocities unfolding in Darfur, 
        Sudan, are genocide;
            (2) reminds the international community, including the 
        United States Government, of their international legal 
        obligations, as affirmed in the 1948 United Nations Convention 
        on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;
            (3) urges the Bush Administration to call the atrocities 
        being committed in Darfur, Sudan by its rightful name: 
        ``genocide'';
            (4) calls on the Bush Administration to lead an 
        international effort to prevent genocide in Darfur, Sudan;
            (5) urges the Bush Administration to seriously consider 
        multilateral or even unilateral intervention to prevent 
        genocide should the United Nations Security Council fail to 
        act;
            (6) demands that the Bush Administration impose targeted 
        sanctions, including visa bans and the freezing of assets of 
        the National Congress and affiliated business and individuals 
        directly responsible for the atrocities in Darfur, Sudan; and
            (7) calls on USAID to establish a Darfur Resettlement, 
        Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Fund so that those driven 
        off their land may return and begin to rebuild their 
        communities.
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