[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 158 (Tuesday, November 4, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  COMMEMORATING THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ENACTMENT OF THE GENOCIDE 
                 CONVENTION IMPLEMENTATION ACT OF 1987

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                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 4, 2003

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 15th anniversary of the 
United States taking a principled stand toward ensuring that the 
lessons of past genocides, such as Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, 
and the genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda, will be used to prevent 
future genocides.
  After the horrors of the Holocaust, the international community 
responded to Nazi Germany's methodically orchestrated acts of genocide 
by approving the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the 
Crime of Genocide in 1948. The Convention confirms that genocide is a 
crime under international law and defines genocide as actions committed 
with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
  The United States, under President Harry Truman, was the first nation 
to sign the Convention, and it was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1986. 
Following the Senate ratification of the Convention on the Prevention 
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Congress passed the Proxmire 
Act to implement the Convention and criminalize genocide under U.S. 
law.
  Fifteen years ago today, President Ronald Reagan signed the Proxmire 
Act into law and put the United States on record as being strongly 
opposed to the heinous crime of genocide.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge consideration of H. Res. 193, 
legislation that I introduced with my colleague, Mr. Radanovich, 
reaffirming support of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment 
of the Crime of Genocide and commemorating the anniversary of the U.S. 
becoming a full party to this landmark international human rights 
legislation.
  This important piece of legislation has tremendous bipartisan support 
among the 110 cosponsors, and the bill was passed unanimously by the 
House Judiciary Committee earlier this year.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the House Leadership to permit immediate 
consideration of this legislation on the floor of the House, and I urge 
my colleagues to reaffirm our national resolve to ensure that the 
lessons of the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the genocides in 
Cambodia and Rwanda, among others, will not be forgotten.




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