[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2955 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2955

To designate July 11 as National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of 
                        the Srebrenica Genocide.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

           September 27 (legislative day, September 22), 2023

 Mrs. Shaheen introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To designate July 11 as National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of 
                        the Srebrenica Genocide.

    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 ``Srebrenica Genocide Remembrance Act 
of 2023''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The United States and the European Community recognized 
        the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an independent state 
        on April 7, 1992, and the United Nations admitted the Republic 
        of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a member on May 22, 1992.
            (2) During a campaign of aggression throughout Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995, Bosniaks 
        comprised the great majority of victims of systematic campaigns 
        of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide conducted 
        by Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serb paramilitary forces 
        with the support of the Government of the Federal Republic of 
        Yugoslavia.
            (3) The Senate passed Senate Resolution 134 in the 109th 
        Congress expressing the sense of the Senate that, from April 
        1992 to November 1995, Serb forces committed aggression against 
        the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and genocide against 
        Bosniaks, with direct support from authorities in Serbia.
            (4) A primary objective of Bosnian Serb leadership, 
        supported by the Government of the Federal Republic of 
        Yugoslavia, was to establish an ethnically homogenous Serb 
        state within Bosnia and Herzegovina, known as ``Republika 
        Srpska''.
            (5) Serb forces, under the command of subsequently 
        convicted war criminals Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, made 
        a concerted effort to control the town of Srebrenica and 
        surrounding areas, which had strategic importance to the Serb 
        campaign to create a Republika Srpska state from the inviolable 
        territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
            (6) Most of the population in Srebrenica was Bosniak, but 
        attempts to erase Bosniaks from the national census impacted 
        accurate reporting of and underestimated the number of Bosniaks 
        in Srebrenica and surrounding areas and across Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina.
            (7) Beginning in 1992, the humanitarian situation in 
        Srebrenica and surrounding areas deteriorated, with Serb forces 
        placing embargoes on food and critical supplies, which resulted 
        in mass starvation and civilian deaths.
            (8) In 1993, the United Nations, pursuant to Security 
        Council resolutions 819 and 824, designated the towns of 
        Srebrenica, Sarajevo, Zepa, Gorazde, Tuzla, and Bihac, in 
        Bosnia and Herzegovina, as ``safe areas'', but failed to 
        demilitarize or protect the designated areas, including that of 
        Srebrenica in 1995, despite the deployment of the United 
        Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) to Srebrenica.
            (9) Upon entering Srebrenica in July 1995, Serb forces 
        deported Bosniak women and girls in buses after torturing and 
        raping many of them, following a nearly yearlong siege and 
        starvation of the town and surrounding areas.
            (10) Serb forces separated military-age men and boys from 
        other civilians in Srebrenica.
            (11) In July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys 
        were tortured and killed in and around the town of Srebrenica, 
        including those men and boys that attempted to form a column 
        and flee Srebrenica for safety but were attacked and killed by 
        Serb forces.
            (12) The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and 
        Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted at Paris December 
        9, 1948, defines genocide as ``any of the following acts 
        committed with 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''.
            (13) The Srebrenica genocide remains the biggest single 
        event of mass extermination in Europe since the end of World 
        War II.
            (14) The bodies of executed Bosniak men and boys were 
        dumped into mass graves, which were subsequently dug up by Serb 
        forces and moved to secondary or tertiary sites in an attempt 
        to hide evidence of the genocide that was committed against 
        Bosniaks.
            (15) Remains of some of the victims of the Srebrenica 
        genocide are still being discovered in 2023.
            (16) In 1993, the United Nations established the 
        International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia 
        through Resolution 827, succeeded by the International Residual 
        Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which investigated, 
        prosecuted, and passed judgement on international crimes 
        committed during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, 
        including during the Bosnian War and the Srebrenica genocide.
            (17) In November 1995, the peace agreement known as the 
        ``Dayton Accords'' was concluded by the presidents of Bosnia 
        and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia to end the war in Bosnia 
        and Herzegovina.
            (18) The Dayton Accords resulted in the adoption of a new 
        constitutional regime that created 2 entities, the Federation 
        of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska, in Bosnia 
        and Herzegovina.
            (19) In a 1999 report on the fall of Srebrenica, the United 
        Nations expressly recognized that the international community 
        must accept its share of responsibility for failing to stop the 
        Srebrenica genocide.
            (20) Serbia issued an apology for crimes committed by Serb 
        forces during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, including 
        in Bosnia and Herzegovina and at Srebrenica and surrounding 
        areas, but did not recognize the mass murders in Srebrenica as 
        genocide.
            (21) In 2004, the Government of the Republika Srpska entity 
        issued an apology for crimes in Srebrenica and acknowledged the 
        deaths of some, but not all, victims and did not recognize the 
        mass murders in and around Srebrenica as genocide.
            (22) In 2015, the Russian Federation vetoed a resolution at 
        the United Nations Security Council condemning the mass murders 
        at Srebrenica as genocide.
            (23) Since the Dayton Accords were concluded, political 
        leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina such as Milorad Dodik have 
        undermined regional stability by engaging in genocide denial 
        and spreading false information about the war crimes, crimes 
        against humanity, and genocide that took place during the 
        Bosnian War.
            (24) Some political leaders have declined to categorize the 
        mass murders at Srebrenica as genocide and continue to engage 
        in harmful ethno-nationalist dialogue.
            (25) In 2021, the High Representative, who oversees the 
        civilian implementation of the Dayton Accords, outlawed 
        genocide denial in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
            (26) The European Union Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina 
        (EUFOR) oversees the military implementation of the Dayton 
        Accords as a successor to the Stabilization Force, the NATO-led 
        multinational peacekeeping force that was deployed to Bosnia 
        and Herzegovina following the Bosnian War.
            (27) The United States and the international community have 
        made significant efforts to uphold peace and stability in 
        Bosnia and Herzegovina and recognize the Srebrenica genocide, 
        including by supporting the work of local, national, regional, 
        and international nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations 
        that preserve the memory of the victims of the Srebrenica 
        genocide.

SEC. 3. NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE SREBRENICA 
              GENOCIDE.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 1 of title 36, United States Code, is 
amended--
            (1) by redesignating the second section designated as 
        section 146 (relating to Choose Respect Day) as section 147; 
        and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 148. National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the 
              Srebrenica Genocide''
    ``(a) Designation.--July 11 is National Day of Remembrance for the 
Victims of the Srebrenica Genocide.
    ``(b) Recognition.--All private citizens, organizations, and 
Federal, State, and local governmental and legislative entities are 
encouraged to recognize National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of 
the Srebrenica Genocide through proclamations, activities, and 
educational efforts to--
            ``(1) pay tribute to the families of the more than 8,000 
        Bosniaks who were killed in July 1995, the Bosniak communities 
        in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the diaspora;
            ``(2) condemn the genocide perpetrated in Srebrenica and 
        surrounding areas and the war crimes and crimes against 
        humanity committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian 
        War;
            ``(3) encourage continued efforts in Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina, Southeast Europe, and the world to counter efforts 
        to undermine respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms 
        and to promote respect for all ethnic and religious groups;
            ``(4) acknowledge the role of the High Representative in 
        promoting truth about the Srebrenica genocide and maintaining 
        peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
            ``(5) condemn the denial of the Srebrenica genocide, which 
        has been recognized as genocide by the International Criminal 
        Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court 
        of Justice, and condemns attempts to revise the history of the 
        Bosnian War;
            ``(6) reaffirm support for the multi-ethnic and multi-
        confessional culture and territorial integrity of Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina as the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina pursue 
        further Euro-Atlantic integration;
            ``(7) condemn inflammatory rhetoric, including that which 
        is meant to destabilize Bosnia and Herzegovina and the broader 
        region, stoke ethnic tensions, and promote social divisions 
        related to denying the Srebrenica genocide;
            ``(8) call on the international community to continue to 
        work toward the sustainable return of Bosniaks consistent with 
        Annex 7 of the Dayton Accords throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina 
        and to Srebrenica, including by condemning ongoing violence and 
        discrimination against, and attempts to disenfranchise, 
        Bosniaks;
            ``(9) encourage continued political reconciliation in the 
        Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the judicial 
        system, including through the strengthening of democratic 
        institutions and educational institutions;
            ``(10) recognize that barriers to political or social 
        reconciliation remain so long as national, regional, and 
        international actors engage in genocide denial and ethno-
        nationalist rhetoric; and
            ``(11) further call on the international community to 
        continue educating current and future generations on the 
        Srebrenica genocide, to promote recognition of the Srebrenica 
        genocide, and, within all the legal means provided by law and 
        consistent with respect for human rights, to refute and deter 
        those who continue to deny the facts of the Srebrenica 
        genocide.''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendments.--The table of sections for 
chapter 1 of title 36, United States Code, is amended by striking the 
item relating to the second section 146 and inserting the following:

``147. Choose Respect Day.
``148. National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Srebrenica 
                            Genocide.''.
                                 <all>