[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Con. Res. 33 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. CON. RES. 33

   Expressing the sense of Congress that those who commit or support 
     atrocities against Christians and other ethnic and religious 
  minorities, including Yezidis, Turkmen, Sabea-Mandeans, Kaka`e, and 
    Kurds, and who target them specifically for ethnic or religious 
  reasons, are committing, and are hereby declared to be committing, 
     ``war crimes'', ``crimes against humanity'', and ``genocide''.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 14, 2016

  Mr. Sasse submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
             referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of Congress that those who commit or support 
     atrocities against Christians and other ethnic and religious 
  minorities, including Yezidis, Turkmen, Sabea-Mandeans, Kaka`e, and 
    Kurds, and who target them specifically for ethnic or religious 
  reasons, are committing, and are hereby declared to be committing, 
     ``war crimes'', ``crimes against humanity'', and ``genocide''.

Whereas those who commit or support atrocities against Christians and other 
        ethnic and religious minorities, including Yezidis, Turkmen, Sabea-
        Mandeans, Kaka`e, and Kurds, and who target them specifically for ethnic 
        or religious reasons, intend to exterminate or to force the migration or 
        submission of anyone who does not share their views concerning religion;
Whereas Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities have been an 
        integral part of the cultural fabric of the Middle East for millennia;
Whereas Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities have been murdered, 
        subjugated, forced to emigrate, and suffered grievous bodily and 
        psychological harm, including sexual enslavement and abuse, inflicted in 
        a deliberate and calculated manner in violation of the laws of their 
        respective nations, the laws of war, laws and treaties forbidding crimes 
        against humanity, and the United Nations Convention on the Prevention 
        and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, signed at Paris December 9, 
        1948 (in this concurrent resolution referred to as the ``Convention'');
Whereas these atrocities are undertaken with the specific intent to bring about 
        the eradication and displacement of their communities and the 
        destruction of their cultural heritage in violation of local laws, the 
        laws of war, laws and treaties that punish crimes against humanity, and 
        the Convention;
Whereas local, national, and international laws and treaties forbidding ``war 
        crimes'' and ``crimes against humanity'' and the Convention condemn 
        murder, massacre, forced migration, extrajudicial punishment, 
        kidnapping, slavery, human trafficking, torture, rape, and persecution 
        of individuals because of their religion and shall be punished, whether 
        committed by ``constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or 
        private individuals'' as provided by local laws, international laws and 
        agreements, and the Convention;
Whereas Article I of the Convention and international and local laws confirm 
        that genocide and crimes against humanity, whether committed in time of 
        peace or in time of war, are crimes that government authorities are 
        obligated to prevent and to punish;
Whereas Article II of the Convention declares, ``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; (e) Forcibly transferring children 
        of the group to another group.'';
Whereas Article III of the Convention affirms, ``The following acts shall be 
        punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct 
        and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit 
        genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide.'';
Whereas, on July 10, 2015, Pope Francis, Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic 
        Church, declared that Middle Eastern Christians are facing genocide, a 
        reality that must be ``denounced'' and that ``[i]n this third world war, 
        waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide--and 
        I stress the word genocide--is taking place, and it must end'';
Whereas a March 13, 2015, report of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights 
        prepared at the request of the Government of Iraq stated that ``[e]thnic 
        and religious groups targeted by ISIL include Yezidis, Christians, 
        Turkmen, Sabea-Mandeans, Kaka`e, Kurds and Shi'a'' and that ``[i]t is 
        reasonable to conclude that some of the incidents [in Iraq in 2014-2015] 
        . . . may constitute genocide''; and
Whereas attacks on Yezidis included the mass killing of men and boys and 
        enslavement and forcible transfer of women and children: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), 
That--
            (1) the atrocities committed against Christians and other 
        ethnic and religious minorities targeted specifically for 
        religious reasons are, and are hereby declared to be, ``crimes 
        against humanity'', and ``genocide'';
            (2) each of the Contracting Parties to the United Nations 
        Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
        Genocide, signed at Paris December 9, 1948, and other 
        international agreements forbidding war crimes and crimes 
        against humanity, particularly the governments of countries and 
        their nationals who are in any way supporting these crimes, are 
        reminded of their legal obligations under the Convention and 
        these international agreements;
            (3) every government and multinational body should call the 
        atrocities being committed in the name of religion by their 
        rightful names: ``crimes against humanity'', ``war crimes'', 
        and ``genocide'';
            (4) the United Nations and the United Nations Secretary-
        General are called upon to assert leadership by calling the 
        atrocities being committed in these places by their rightful 
        names: ``war crimes'', ``crimes against humanity'', and 
        ``genocide'';
            (5) the member states of the United Nations, with an urgent 
        appeal to the Arab States that wish to uphold religious 
        freedom, tolerance, and justice--
                    (A) should join in this concurrent resolution;
                    (B) should collaborate on measures to prevent 
                further war crimes, crimes against humanity, and 
                genocide; and
                    (C) should collaborate on the establishment and 
                operation of domestic, regional and international 
                tribunals to punish those responsible for the ongoing 
                crimes;
            (6) the governments of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the 
        Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Lebanese Republic, and other 
        countries are commended for having undertaken to shelter and 
        protect those fleeing the violence of the Islamic State in Iraq 
        and Syria (``ISIS'' or ``Da'esh'') and other extremists until 
        they can safely return to their homes in Iraq and Syria; and
            (7) all those who force the migration of religious 
        communities from their ancestral homelands, where they have 
        lived and practiced their faith in safety and stability for 
        hundreds of years--including specifically in the Nineveh Plain, 
        a historic heartland of Christianity in Iraq and Mount Sinjar, 
        the historic home of the Yezidis--should be tracked, 
        sanctioned, arrested, prosecuted, and punished in accordance 
        with the laws of the place where their crimes were committed 
        and under applicable international criminal statutes and 
        conventions.
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