[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 528 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 528

  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the 
                 Victims of the Terror Protection Fund.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 16, 2015

Ms. Jackson Lee (for herself, Ms. Judy Chu of California, Mr. Dold, Mr. 
    Rangel, Ms. Hahn, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Ms. Fudge, Mrs. Watson 
 Coleman, Ms. Sewell of Alabama, and Ms. Wilson of Florida) submitted 
   the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                            Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the 
                 Victims of the Terror Protection Fund.

Whereas the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNAC) obliges state 
        parties to implement a wide and detailed range of anticorruption 
        measures affecting their laws, institutions and practices;
Whereas these measures aim to promote the prevention, detection, and sanctioning 
        of corruption, as well as the cooperation between state parties on these 
        matters;
Whereas the UNAC promotes preventive measures, criminalization of a wide range 
        of offenses and contains a broad definition of the term public official, 
        including offenses related both to public sector corruption and private 
        sector (private-to-private) corruption;
Whereas the UNAC's asset recovery provision is robust and delineates a global 
        asset recovery framework and strategy and covers countries in a variety 
        of nation states from the north and south;
Whereas the technical cooperation and information exchange provision of the UNAC 
        provides for ``enhanced financial and material assistance'' to 
        developing countries and technical assistance to developing countries 
        and countries in transition to help them implement the Convention, 
        without which such countries will be in a position to implement UNAC 
        requirements;
Whereas asset recovery is a fundamental principle of UNAC, where high-level 
        corruption has plundered the national wealth, and where resources are 
        badly needed for reconstruction and the rehabilitation of societies 
        under new governments;
Whereas the needs of countries seeking the illicit assets had to be reconciled 
        with the legal and procedural safeguards of the countries whose 
        assistance is sought with emphasis on cooperation and assistance;
Whereas in the case of embezzlement of public funds, one of the manners in which 
        the confiscated assets could be disposed of is as compensation to the 
        victims affected by the underlying crime;
Whereas an effective asset recovery provision created by a state party such as 
        the United States will support the efforts of other countries to redress 
        the worst effects of corruption while sending a message to corrupt 
        officials that there will be no place to hide illicit assets;
Whereas the United States Department of Justice implements and enforces the UNAC 
        vis-a-vis its Justice's Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative;
Whereas to date, the forfeited ``Abacha funds'' is the largest kleptocracy 
        forfeiture action ever brought in the United States totaling 
        approximately $458,000,000 of forfeited assets recovered by Justice's 
        Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative from former Nigerian Dictator 
        Sanni Abacha;
Whereas, as delineated in the UNAC and pursuant to Justice's Kleptocracy 
        Initiative, upon recovery of proceeds of crime or corruption-related 
        assets, the Attorney General as the Chief Prosecutor of the United 
        States has the discretion to dispose of the funds as she deems fit, 
        especially where high-level corruption has plundered the national 
        wealth, and where resources are badly needed for reconstruction and the 
        rehabilitation of societies under new governments;
Whereas the Abacha Administration embezzled Nigerian public funds under among 
        other false claims that the Administration was investing in national 
        security measures to protect Nigeria and the Nigerian people;
Whereas, as a result of or in part because of the Government of Nigeria's 
        failure to invest in and implement security measures, the security in 
        Nigeria is tenuous and the country is currently under continuous threat 
        by the ISIS affiliated group Boko Haram;
Whereas, as recently as May 2015, Nigeria is reported as having the highest 
        number of displaced persons in Africa and the third largest in the world 
        following Syria and Colombia in part because of security issues and the 
        continual threat of Boko Haram;
Whereas according to a report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, an 
        estimated 3,300,000 persons have been displaced and 5,500 killed as a 
        result of violence in general and Boko Haram specifically in Nigeria;
Whereas according to a UNICEF report, Nigeria, with its population of 
        174,000,000 people, has seen an estimated 1,500,000 people flee their 
        homes to escape Boko Haram trafficking and terrorist related violence;
Whereas according to Amnesty International, thousands of women and girls have 
        been abducted by the group with some ``shared'' to fighters as a reward 
        or trafficked as sex slaves;
Whereas in April 2015 alone, 700 women and girls were rescued from Boko Haram 
        militants in the Sambisa Forest with hundreds ``visibly pregnant'';
Whereas Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for trafficking, kidnapping, 
        deaths, and displacement of thousands of Nigerian children, women, and 
        men;
Whereas among others, Boko Haram also allegedly kidnapped 276 school girls from 
        their dormitories in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria while they were in 
        the midst of exam preparation;
Whereas the still missing Chibok girls are part of the approximately 3,300,000 
        persons displaced in the Lake Chad Basin which sits on the edge of the 
        Sahara which encompasses Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria;
Whereas the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime is a 
        legally binding instrument through which state parties commit to taking 
        a series of measures against transnational organized crime;
Whereas the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, 
        especially Women and Children, was adopted by General Assembly 
        resolution 55/25 and entered into force on December 25, 2003;
Whereas the Convention and the Protocol are the first global legally binding 
        instruments with an agreed definition on trafficking in persons;
Whereas a key objective of the Protocol is to protect and assist the victims of 
        trafficking in persons with full respect for their human rights; and
Whereas the human rights of the victims of Boko Haram to life, security, and 
        livelihood have been violated in derogation of the Universal Declaration 
        of Human Rights, the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the 
        Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its 
        two Optional Protocols, and the International Covenant on Economic, 
        Social and Cultural Rights, among others: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) Boko Haram and other terrorist organizations be 
        declared an existential threat to the human rights, well-being, 
        and security of the Nigerian people and their regional 
        neighbors with its relentless drive to commit genocide in 
        Nigeria;
            (2) there is an urgency for a framework to address the 
        unprecedented migrant and refugee crisis across the 
        Mediterranean triggered by violent extremism, conflict, and 
        natural disasters;
            (3) the global strategy for ending the suffering, 
        preventing displacement, and creating solutions for displaced 
        persons in Africa include a multi-pronged strategy which would 
        among others include a Victims of Terror Protection Fund, 
        sustained humanitarian response, government and civil society 
        capacity building, and the creation of resilient political and 
        security infrastructures and landscapes;
            (4) military technical assistance be provided to Nigeria 
        and its neighbors, owing to the fact that the threat of Boko 
        Haram has been so serious that the United Nations Security 
        Council and neighboring African countries have called for 
        accelerated military collaboration to combat this extremist 
        group and any of its affiliates;
            (5) the victims of Boko Haram should be provided the dire 
        humanitarian assistance which the Victims of Terror Support 
        Fund can provide pursuant to the Universal Declaration of Human 
        Rights, the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the 
        Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 
        and its two Optional Protocols, and the International Covenant 
        on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, among others; and
            (6) the Victims of Terror Support Fund should be modeled 
        after the cases of Khazistan and Equatorial Guinea where prior 
        kleptocracy initiatives have been created to benefit 
        communities and victims in need of support.
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