[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 756 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 756

To require a report on accountability for war crimes and crimes against 
                           humanity in Syria.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 17, 2015

 Mr. Cardin (for himself, Mr. Rubio, and Mr. Menendez) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                           Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require a report on accountability for war crimes and crimes against 
                           humanity in Syria.

    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 ``Syrian War Crimes Accountability Act 
of 2015''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) March 2015 marks the fourth year of the ongoing 
        conflict in Syria.
            (2) On December 17, 2014, the United Nations Security 
        Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2191 ``expressing 
        outrage at the unacceptable and escalating level of violence 
        and the killing of more than 191,000 people, including well 
        over 10,000 children'' and approximately 1,000,000 injured in 
        Syria.
            (3) More than half of Syria's population is displaced as of 
        March 2015, with more than 7,600,000 internally displaced and 
        more than 3,700,000 refugees in neighboring countries.
            (4) On February 19, 2015, United Nations Secretary-General 
        Ban Ki-moon reported to the Security Council that ``parties to 
        the conflict are failing to live up to their international 
        legal obligations to protect civilians'' and called for action 
        to ensure the unfettered delivery of humanitarian relief, an 
        end to the use of denial of services as a weapon of war, and a 
        response to ``the relentless and indiscriminate attacks on 
        civilians, including through the use of barrel bombs''.
            (5) On February 27, 2014, the Department of State issued 
        its 2013 Human Rights Report on Syria, which described 
        President Bashar al Assad's use of ``indiscriminate and deadly 
        force'' in the conflict, including the August 21, 2013, use of 
        ``sarin gas and artillery to target East Ghouta and Moadamiya 
        al-Sham, suburbs of Damascus, which killed over 1,000 people''.
            (6) The 2014 United States Commission on International 
        Religious Freedom Annual Report states that in Syria 
        ``terrorist organizations espouse violence and the creation of 
        an Islamic state with no space for religious diversity and have 
        carried out religiously-motivated attacks and massacres against 
        Alawite, Shi'a and Christian civilians.''
            (7) On February 4, 2015, the Executive Council of the 
        Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) 
        adopted a decision expressing serious concern about the 
        findings ``with a high degree of confidence'' of an OPCW fact-
        finding mission that chlorine had been used as a weapon in some 
        areas of Syria in 2014 and calling for those individuals 
        responsible to be held accountable.
            (8) The United Nations Independent International Commission 
        of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic reports that pro-
        government forces have conducted attacks on Syrian civilian 
        populations, and have utilized murder, torture, assault, and 
        rape as war tactics. Anti-government groups have also committed 
        murder and torture, engaged in hostage-taking, attacked 
        protected objects, and shelled civilian neighborhoods. The 
        Commission's February 2015 report states that Syria's civil war 
        ``has been characterized by massive, recurrent violations of 
        human rights and international humanitarian law that demand 
        urgent international and national action''.
            (9) On March 12, 2015, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) 
        reported that since 2011, at least 610 medical personnel have 
        been killed and there have been 233 deliberate or 
        indiscriminate attacks on 183 medical facilities in Syria. The 
        Physicians for Human Rights report cited evidence that the 
        Government of Syria committed 88 percent of the recorded 
        hospital attacks and 97 percent of medical personnel killings, 
        and ``has targeted health care and increasingly used it as a 
        weapon of war to destroy its opponents by preventing care, 
        killing thousands of civilians along the way''.
            (10) Internationally accepted rules of war require actors 
        to distinguish between civilians and combatants and that all 
        parties are obligated to respect and protect the wounded and 
        sick and to take care all reasonable measures to provide safe 
        and prompt access for the wounded and sick to medical care.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    Congress--
            (1) strongly condemns the ongoing violence, use of chemical 
        weapons, targeting of civilian populations with barrel, 
        incendiary, and cluster bombs and SCUD missiles, and systematic 
        gross human rights violations carried out by Government of 
        Syria and pro-government forces under the direction of 
        President Bashar al-Assad, as well as all abuses committed by 
        violent extremist groups and other combatants involved in the 
        civil war in Syria;
            (2) expresses its support for the people of Syria seeking 
        democratic change;
            (3) urges all parties to the conflict to immediately halt 
        indiscriminate attacks on civilians, allow for the delivery of 
        humanitarian and medical assistance, and end sieges of civilian 
        populations;
            (4) calls on the President to support efforts in Syria and 
        on the part of the international community to ensure 
        accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity 
        committed during the conflict; and
            (5) supports the requirement in United Nations Security 
        Council Resolutions 2191, 2165 and 2139 for regular reporting 
        by the Secretary-General on implementation on the resolutions, 
        including of paragraph 2 of resolution 2139, which demands that 
        all parties desist from violations of international 
        humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights and 
        calls on the Security Council to establish a committee to 
        investigate past and ongoing gross violations of human rights 
        and war crimes in the Syrian conflict.

SEC. 4. REPORT ON ACCOUNTABILITY FOR WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST 
              HUMANITY IN SYRIA.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, and again not later than 180 days after the 
cessation of violence in Syria, the Secretary of State shall submit to 
the appropriate congressional committees a report on war crimes and 
crimes against humanity in Syria.
    (b) Elements.--The report required under subsection (a) shall 
include the following elements:
            (1) A description of violations of internationally 
        recognized human rights, war crimes, and crimes against 
        humanity perpetrated during the civil war in Syria, including--
                    (A) an account of incidents that may constitute war 
                crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the 
                regime of President Bashar al-Assad and all forces 
                fighting on its behalf;
                    (B) an account of incidents that may constitute war 
                crimes and crimes against humanity committed by violent 
                extremist groups, anti-government forces, and any other 
                combatants in the conflict;
                    (C) a description of any incidents that may violate 
                the principle of medical neutrality and, when possible, 
                an identification of the individual or individuals who 
                engaged in or organized such violations; and
                    (D) where possible, a description of the 
                conventional and unconventional weapons used for such 
                crimes and, the origins of the weapons.
            (2) A description of efforts by the Department of State and 
        the United States Agency for International Development to 
        ensure accountability for violations of internationally 
        recognized human rights, international humanitarian law, and 
        crimes against humanity perpetrated against the people of Syria 
        by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, violent extremist 
        groups, and other combatants involved in the conflict, 
        including--
                    (A) a description of initiatives that the United 
                States Government has undertaken to train investigators 
                in Syria on how to document, investigate, and develop 
                findings of war crimes, including the number of United 
                States Government or contract personnel currently 
                designated to work full-time on these issues and an 
                identification of the authorities and appropriations 
                being used to support training efforts;
                    (B) a description and assessment of Syrian and 
                international efforts to ensure accountability for 
                crimes committed during the Syrian conflict, including 
                efforts to promote a transitional justice process that 
                would include criminal accountability and the 
                establishment of an ad hoc tribunal to prosecute the 
                perpetrators of war crimes committed during the civil 
                war in Syria; and
                    (C) an assessment of the influence of 
                accountability measures on efforts to reach a 
                negotiated settlement to the conflict during the 
                reporting period.
    (c) Form.--The report required under subsection (a) may be in 
unclassified or classified form, but shall include a publicly available 
annex.
    (d) Appropriate Congressional Committee Defined.--In this section, 
the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
            (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; and
            (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of 
        Representatives.
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