[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 467 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 467


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 7, 2004

      Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
                  Declaring genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

Whereas Article 1 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the 
        Crime of Genocide (signed at Paris on December 9, 1948) 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 Contracting Parties to the Convention on 
        the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (signed 
        at Paris on December 9, 1948), particularly the Government of 
        Sudan, of their legal obligations under the Convention;
            (3) declares that the Government of Sudan, as a Contracting 
        Party, has violated the Convention on the Prevention and 
        Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;
            (4) deplores the failure of the United Nations Human Rights 
        Commission to take appropriate action with respect to the 
        crisis in Darfur, Sudan, particularly the failure by the 
        Commission to support United States-sponsored efforts to 
        strongly condemn gross human rights violations committed in 
        Darfur, and calls upon the United Nations and the United 
        Nations Secretary General to assert leadership by calling the 
        atrocities being committed in Darfur by their rightful name: 
        ``genocide'';
            (5) calls on the member states of the United Nations, 
        particularly member states from the African Union, the Arab 
        League, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to 
        undertake measures to prevent the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, 
        from escalating further, including the imposition of targeted 
        sanctions against those responsible for the atrocities;
            (6) urges the Administration to call the atrocities being 
        committed in Darfur, Sudan, by their rightful name: 
        ``genocide'';
            (7) commends the Administration's leadership in seeking a 
        peaceful resolution to the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, and in 
        addressing the ensuing humanitarian crisis, including the visit 
        of Secretary of State Colin Powell to Darfur in June 2004 to 
        engage directly in efforts to end the genocide, and the 
        provision of nearly $140,000,000 to date in bilateral 
        humanitarian assistance through the United States Agency for 
        International Development;
            (8) commends the President for appointing former Senator 
        John Danforth as Envoy for Peace in Sudan on September 6, 2001, 
        and further commends the appointment of Senator Danforth as 
        United States Ambassador to the United Nations;
            (9) calls on the Administration to continue to lead an 
        international effort to stop genocide in Darfur, Sudan;
            (10) urges the Administration to seriously consider 
        multilateral or even unilateral intervention to stop genocide 
        in Darfur, Sudan, should the United Nations Security Council 
        fail to act;
            (11) calls on the Administration to impose targeted 
        sanctions, including visa bans and the freezing of assets of 
        the Sudanese National Congress and affiliated business and 
        individuals directly responsible for the atrocities in Darfur, 
        Sudan; and
            (12) calls on the United States Agency for International 
        Development to establish a Darfur Resettlement, Rehabilitation, 
        and Reconstruction Fund so that those individuals driven off 
        their land may return and begin to rebuild their communities.

            Passed the House of Representatives July 22, 2004.

            Attest:

                                                 JEFF TRANDAHL,

                                                                 Clerk.