[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 340 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]

<DOC>






114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 340

 Expressing the sense of the Senate that the atrocities perpetrated by 
 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against religious and 
ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria include war crimes, crimes against 
                        humanity, and genocide.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 18, 2015

Mr. Cassidy (for himself, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Wicker, 
  Mr. Peters, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Blunt, Ms. Ayotte, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. 
 Tillis, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Isakson, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Burr, 
Ms. Klobuchar, and Mr. Scott) submitted the following resolution; which 
           was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

                             April 28, 2016

   Reported by Mr. Corker, with an amendment and an amendment to the 
                 preamble and an amendment to the title

                              July 7, 2016

  Considered, amended, and agreed to with an amended preamble and an 
                         amendment to the title

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate that the atrocities perpetrated by 
 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against religious and 
ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria include war crimes, crimes against 
                        humanity, and genocide.

Whereas Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities have been an 
        integral part of the cultural fabric of the Middle East for millennia;
Whereas the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or Da'esh) and associated 
        extremists are committing egregious atrocities against ethnic and 
        religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, including Christians (among them 
        Assyrian Chaldean Syriac, Armenian, Evangelicals, Antiochian and Greek 
        Orthodox, Maronite, Melkite, and Roman Catholic communities), Yezidis, 
        Turkmen, Shi'a, Shabak, Sabaean-Mandeans, and Kaka'i, among others;
Whereas ISIL specifically targets these religious and ethnic minorities, 
        intending to kill them or force their submission, conversion, or 
        expulsion;
Whereas religious and ethnic minorities have been murdered, subjugated, forced 
        to emigrate, and subjected to grievous bodily and psychological harm, 
        kidnapping, human trafficking, torture, and rape;
Whereas ISIL engages in, and publicly argues in favor of, the sexual enslavement 
        of non-Muslim women, including prepubescent girls;
Whereas the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the United 
        Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said in a January 2016 report that 
        it believes ISIL is holding around 3,500 slaves, predominantly women and 
        children, ``primarily from the Yezidi community, but a number are also 
        from other ethnic and religious minority communities'';
Whereas ISIL specifically targets religious and ethnic minorities, and has 
        reportedly kidnapped, forcibly displaced, killed, raped, electrocuted, 
        and crucified members of ethnic and religious groups, including 
        Christian, Shabak, Turkmen, and Shia of all ethnicities;
Whereas ISIL has deliberately destroyed and looted numerous cultural sites, 
        religious shrines, places of worship, monasteries, and museums in order 
        to eradicate the cultures of ethnic and religious minorities;
Whereas these atrocities have been undertaken with the specific intent to bring 
        about the eradication of those communities and the destruction of their 
        cultural heritage;
Whereas ISIL operations have in fact driven minority religious and ethnic 
        communities from their ancestral homelands;
Whereas under applicable domestic and international law codified in section 2441 
        of title 18, United States Code, murder, torture, mutilation, rape, 
        cruel treatment, and hostage taking of non-combatants constitute war 
        crimes;
Whereas crimes against humanity, as defined by the International Military 
        Tribunal convened at Nuremberg in 1945, include murder, extermination, 
        enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any 
        civilian population, as well as persecution on political, racial, or 
        religious grounds in connection with such crimes;
Whereas the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the 
        Crime of Genocide, signed and ratified by the United States, defines 
        genocide as ``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 according to the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, in February 2014, 
        ISIL ordered Christians in Raqqa, Syria to either convert to Islam, pay 
        jizya, a tax specifically applied on the basis of religious belief, and 
        accept serious curbs on their faith, or face execution;
Whereas according to the Department of State, in August 2014, as ISIL began to 
        expand beyond Mosul, an estimated 450,000 Yezidis, 300,000 Turkmen, and 
        125,000 Christians, as well as Iraqi Arabs, Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims, 
        Shabak and other ethnic and religious groups, were forced from their 
        communities;
Whereas in areas controlled by ISIL, churches, monasteries and other places of 
        worship have effectively been shuttered and do not publicly conduct 
        worship services;
Whereas, on August 7, 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry declared that ``ISIL's 
        campaign of terror against the innocent, including Yezidi and Christian 
        minorities, and its grotesque and targeted acts of violence bear all the 
        warning signs and hallmarks of genocide'':
Whereas, in August 2014, the United States conducted targeted airstrikes and 
        humanitarian assistance operations to help break the siege of Mount 
        Sinjar, saving the lives of thousands of Yezidi men, women, and 
        children;
Whereas His Holiness, Pope Francis, has noted that ``entire communities, 
        especially--but not only--Christians and Yezidis, have suffered and are 
        still suffering inhuman violence because off their ethnic and religious 
        identity'' and stated that, for Christians being killed for their faith 
        in the Middle East ``a form of genocide--I insist on the word--is taking 
        place, and it must end'';
Whereas a March 13, 2015, report by the Office of the United Nations High 
        Commissioner for Human Rights detailed ``acts of violence perpetrated 
        [by ISIL] against civilians because of their affiliation or perceived 
        affiliation to an ethnic or religious group'' and stated that ``[i]t is 
        reasonable to conclude that some of these incidents, considering the 
        overall information, may constitute genocide'';
Whereas, on December 7, 2015, the United States Commission on International 
        Religious Freedom called on the United States Government ``to designate 
        the Christian, Yezidi, Shi'a, Turkmen, and Shabak communities of Iraq 
        and Syria as victims of genocide by ISIL'' and urged world leaders ``to 
        condemn the genocidal actions and crimes against humanity of ISIL that 
        have been directed at these groups and other ethnic and religious 
        groups'';
Whereas, on February 3, 2016, the European Parliament expressed the view that 
        ISIL ``is committing genocide against Christians and Yezidis, and other 
        religious and ethnic minorities''; and
Whereas, on March 17, 2016, Secretary of State John Kerry issued a declaration 
        stating, that in his judgement, ``Da'esh is responsible for genocide 
        against groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis, 
        Christians, and Shia Muslims,'' and is ``also responsible for crimes 
        against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at these same groups and 
        in some cases against Sunni Muslims and Kurds and other minorities'': 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq 
        and the Levant (ISIL) against Christians, Yezidis, Shi'a, and 
        other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria 
        constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide;
            (2) all governments, and international organizations should 
        call ISIL atrocities by their rightful names: war crimes, 
        crimes against humanity, and genocide;
            (3) the member states of the United Nations should 
        coordinate urgently on measures to prevent further war crimes, 
        crimes against humanity, and genocide by ISIL in Iraq and 
        Syria, and to punish those responsible for these ongoing 
        crimes, including by the collection and preservation of 
        evidence and, if necessary, the establishment and operation of 
        appropriate tribunals;
            (4) the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Lebanese Republic, 
        the Republic of Turkey, and the Kurdistan Regional Government 
        in Iraq are to be commended for, and supported in, their 
        efforts to shelter and protect those fleeing the violence of 
        ISIL and other combatants until they can safely return to their 
        homes in Iraq and Syria; and
            (5) the protracted Syrian civil war and the indiscriminate 
        violence of the Assad regime have contributed to the growth of 
        ISIL and will continue to do so as long as this conflict 
        continues.
                                 <all>