[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1117 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1117

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that United States 
assistance to Iraqi Christians, Yazidis, and other minority communities 
  victimized by ISIS genocide must be combined with a clear plan for 
local security to facilitate the repatriation of these groups to their 
                          ancestral homelands.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 5, 2018

Mr. Fortenberry submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
                  to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

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                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that United States 
assistance to Iraqi Christians, Yazidis, and other minority communities 
  victimized by ISIS genocide must be combined with a clear plan for 
local security to facilitate the repatriation of these groups to their 
                          ancestral homelands.

Whereas the Nineveh Plain and the wider region have been the ancestral homeland 
        of Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Christians, Yazidis, Shabak, and others, 
        where they lived for centuries until the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria 
        (ISIS) overran and occupied much of the region in 2014;
Whereas Christians in Iraq once numbered over 1.5 million in 2003 and have 
        dwindled to less than 200,000 today;
Whereas the United States President, Vice President, Congress, and Secretary of 
        State have recognized that ISIS has committed genocide, war crimes, 
        crimes against humanity, and other crimes against Christians, Yazidis, 
        and other religious and ethnic minorities;
Whereas these atrocities were undertaken with the specific intent to bring about 
        the eradication and displacement of Christians, Yazidis, and other 
        communities and the destruction of their cultural heritage in violation 
        of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the 
        Crime of Genocide;
Whereas it is consistent with the commitments of the Republic of Iraq, the 
        Kurdish Regional Government, the United States, and the international 
        community to guarantee the restoration of fundamental human rights, 
        including property rights, to genocide victims, and to see that ethnic 
        and religious pluralism survives in Iraq;
Whereas the Vice President announced the ``Genocide Recovery and Persecution 
        Response Program'' in which ``the State Department and the U.S. Agency 
        for International Development will closely partner with local faith and 
        community leaders to rapidly deliver aid to persecuted communities, 
        beginning with Iraq. Crucially, this support will flow directly to 
        individuals and households most in need of help'';
Whereas facilitating the success of these communities and ensuring that they can 
        flourish require an appropriate local security plan: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives expresses that--
            (1) it should be a policy priority of the United States to 
        support the secure return of displaced indigenous people of the 
        Nineveh Plain and Sinjar to their ancestral homeland, working 
        with international partners, the Government of Iraq, and the 
        Kurdistan Regional Government;
            (2) the United States Department of Defense, the National 
        Security Council, the Department of State, and other relevant 
        Government entities should swiftly develop a coordinated and 
        implementable plan for a stabilization and security mission, in 
        cooperation with the Government of Iraq and the Kurdish 
        Regional Government, to train indigenous police units and 
        regularized military structures that include Christian and 
        Yazidi local security forces with an emphasis on the Nineveh 
        Plain and Sinjar;
            (3) the United States should develop this plan in 
        coordination with international partners; and
            (4) the Secretary of State, or the Secretary's designee, 
        should actively participate in the development of this 
        strategy.
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