[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 537 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 537

   Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States should 
  recognize the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as ``the genocide against the 
                           Tutsi in Rwanda''.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 31, 2024

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States should 
  recognize the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as ``the genocide against the 
                           Tutsi in Rwanda''.

Whereas, in 2018, the United Nations General Assembly amended the title of the 
        annual observance of the genocide in Rwanda on April 7 to be the 
        ``International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi 
        in Rwanda'';
Whereas United States officials have noted publicly that the genocide in Rwanda 
        was ``intended to destroy Tutsi'';
Whereas, on April 7, 2023, Secretary of State Blinken stated, ``The U.S. stands 
        with Rwanda . . . in remembering the Tutsi victims of genocide. We also 
        mourn the others who were murdered for their opposition to a genocidal 
        regime.'';
Whereas the United States Integrated Country Strategy for Rwanda (approved March 
        14, 2022) refers to the ``1994 genocide against the Tutsi ethnic 
        group'';
Whereas Rwandan officials, in appropriately opposing genocide denial or 
        revisionism, aptly note that any nomenclature that does not specifically 
        use the phrase ``genocide against the Tutsi'' is ``ambiguous'' and 
        conducive to genocide denial or revisionism;
Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum notes in its public 
        educational materials on the ``genocide in Rwanda'' that the victims 
        were ``predominantly Tutsi'' and that the goal of Hutu extremist leaders 
        was for ``Rwandan Tutsis to be exterminated'';
Whereas the United States-based nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch, 
        which played a central role in documenting the genocide in Rwanda and in 
        supporting international efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice, 
        found that the ``Tutsi were being targeted for elimination'';
Whereas European diplomats refer to the ``genocide against the Tutsi'' in public 
        statements;
Whereas, starting in 2022, the Government of the United Kingdom has used the 
        terminology ``genocide against the Tutsi''; and
Whereas the United States is the only major country in the world to publicly 
        reject the terminology ``genocide against the Tutsi'': Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the United States should recognize the 1994 genocide in 
        Rwanda as ``the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda'';
            (2) the Secretary of State should publicly affirm that 
        terminology; and
            (3) other types of atrocities occurred alongside the 
        genocide against the Tutsi, and the history of the genocide 
        should clearly affirm the other experiences of mass violence 
        against Rwandans during the same period, including the killings 
        and other violence experienced by Hutus and the Indigenous Twa 
        community, perpetrated by Hutu extremist militias.
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