[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 15, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9313-S9315]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CALLING FOR THE SUSPENSION OF SUDAN'S MEMBERSHIP ON THE U.N. COMMISSION 
                            ON HUMAN RIGHTS

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in a few minutes, I will be propounding a 
number of unanimous consent requests and

[[Page S9314]]

completing business for the day. One of the unanimous consent requests 
I will propound shortly has to do with one of the most significant 
humanitarian crises of recent years--and most people would say it is 
the most dramatic humanitarian global crisis of today--the atrocities 
that are occurring in Sudan, in the Darfur region of Sudan, which is a 
region in western Sudan which is about the size of France.
  Sudan is a huge country, and this whole Darfur region since a year 
before last February has been the geographic location where 30,000 to 
50,000 people have died, with another 1.4 million and maybe as high as 
1.7 million people displaced from their homes--action that we condemned 
on the floor of the Senate, and the House did likewise, at the end of 
July before our recess, and designating in the most dramatic terms that 
this is genocide.
  Unfortunately, not a lot has happened on the ground that is 
constructive since that point in time. Thirty days passed and a United 
Nations determination on what was going on didn't have very much teeth 
to it, and the Government in Khartoum of Sudan simply hasn't responded. 
Thus these atrocities--the rape, the pillaging, the murder, the total 
destruction of the villages--have continued. It is important that the 
United Nations continue to act and address this issue. It is also 
important, since the United Nations has not really acted, that we in 
the United States lead with clarity, boldness, and, I would say, moral 
clarity.
  The resolution we will be addressing shortly takes that next step for 
what we in this legislative body can do. The resolution calls upon the 
Secretary of State to take action to push for the immediate suspension 
of Sudan's membership on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. 
A government that is engaged in committing genocide should simply not 
have a seat on the Commission on Human Rights.
  Since the initial resolution we passed in July designating this as 
genocide, I have had the opportunity to go to Sudan once again, which I 
do at least once a year as part of the medical mission work I do. But 
this time I had the opportunity to go to the country of Chad, which is 
just west of the Darfur region of Sudan where we have had thousands and 
thousands of people flee to escape the Janjaweed, the militia that is 
being funded by the Government of Khartoum.
  In these refugee camps--Tulum is one I immediately think of where 
15,000 people fled--the stories you hear would be a woman who says: 
Last month, I was there with my three little kids, and my husband was 
in the fields working, and the Janjaweed military in uniform came and 
destroyed our entire village. My two children, I don't know where they 
are. I assume they have been killed. Here is one child with me. My 
husband is dead, and I have no home and nowhere to go, so I am in the 
refugee camp.
  That is going on. After 1,200 interviews that have occurred over the 
last month, the Secretary of State this past week in a Foreign 
Relations hearing said: Yes. Based on our findings independent of what 
Congress decided, this is genocide.
  What we don't have yet is a determination by the United Nations 
because there are countries such as China and Russia and Pakistan and 
others that sit on the Security Council. Basically they have not yet 
made a determination. Meanwhile people continue to die. The atrocities 
continue. Thus, this body today in this resolution will take action to 
push for the immediate suspension of Sudan's membership on the United 
Nations Commission on Human Rights.
  The Senate resolution further states that the United Nations should 
immediately move to determine whether genocide has been conducted in 
Darfur, and if it has, that the Secretary of State should push for 
Sudan's removal from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. A 
government, as I said, engaged in genocide should not have a seat on 
this Commission. It makes a mockery of the Human Rights Commission. 
This is an affront to all responsible countries that embrace and 
promote human rights.

  The 1948 Genocide Convention calls on state parties to punish 
genocide--those are the words it uses--when it occurs. The United 
States is party to this 1948 Convention on Genocide and so is Sudan. 
The United States has taken a number of actions to provide relief to 
the people of Sudan. We have introduced resolutions to the U.N. 
condemning Khartoum's actions. We have taken a number of actions. The 
United States has already placed comprehensive sanctions on Sudan for 
its actions as a state sponsor of terrorism.
  What we are doing today is pushing to suspend Sudan from the Human 
Rights Commission, which is consistent with our obligations under that 
Genocide Convention. It makes sense. It is the right thing to do. I 
hope the House of Representatives will take up this resolution quickly 
and pass it forthwith. I also hope in the meantime, Secretary Powell 
will listen to the will and intent of the Congress and begin taking 
appropriate action. If we are going to preserve the credibility of the 
United Nations and its separate commissions, if we are going to advance 
the causes of human rights, if we are going to protect oppressed 
peoples around the globe, and especially in Darfur, then the U.N. must 
take more aggressive action.
  I turn to the resolution and ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed 
to the immediate consideration of S. Con. Res. 137, which was submitted 
earlier today by Senators Frist and Daschle.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chambliss). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The clerk will report the concurrent resolution by title.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 137) calling for the 
     suspension of Sudan's membership on the United Nation's 
     Commission on Human Rights.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
concurrent resolution.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I am pleased to have joined Senator Frist 
in the submission of S. Con. Res. 137.
  It is a shame, really, that we need to be here on the floor again to 
discuss Sudan. Yet we were confronted again this morning with even more 
troubling and disconcerting news about the Darfur region of Sudan. 
According to this morning's newspapers, the United Nations has 
concluded that between 6,000 and 10,000 people are dying from disease 
and violence each month in Sudan's Darfur region.
  What is worse is that the United Nations--like the United States--has 
concluded that each and every one of these deaths is entirely 
preventable.
  Unfortunately, however, the Sudanese government continues to support 
marauding militias that not only murder people whose only offense is to 
be of a different ethnicity, but those militias continue to hinder 
efforts to respond to one of Africa's worst humanitarian crises.
  This resolution also calls attention to a separate tragedy: That 
Sudan was granted a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Commission. 
It won that seat at a time when its tolerance and even support for 
militias in Darfur was widely known. Unfortunately, not only did no one 
in the Arab world object to Sudan taking this seat, neither did the 
administration use its clout at the United Nations to stop this.
  This resolution says very clearly that a government that appears to 
be tolerating genocide has no business serving on the UN Human Rights 
Commission.
  I also want to take a minute to discuss an additional effort on Sudan 
that Senators Leahy, McConnell, Frist and I were able to work out this 
morning.
  We all recognize that we will soon face mounting costs to ease the 
suffering caused by this humanitarian disaster in Darfur. As such, we 
were able to come to a straightforward, common-sense agreement that the 
President and Secretary of State should re-direct $150 million in 
unused reconstruction money from Iraq to Darfur and for the African 
Union forces that are attempting to stabilize the situation there.
  Let me be clear: This is not money for our troops in Iraq, but is 
unused reconstruction money. This is the right thing to do, and I 
commend my colleagues for their efforts to make sure it happens.
  Mr. FRIST. I ask that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the 
preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, 
and any statements be printed in the Record.

[[Page S9315]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 137) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The concurrent resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                            S. Con. Res. 137

       Whereas, in Darfur, Sudan, more than 30,000 innocent 
     civilians have been murdered, more than 400 villages have 
     been destroyed, more than 130,000 men, women, and children 
     have been forced from their villages into neighboring 
     countries, and more than 1,000,000 people have been 
     internally displaced;
       Whereas the United States Government has been, and remains 
     as of September 2004, the largest contributor of assistance 
     to the people of Darfur, having provided over $200,000,000 in 
     assistance, which constitutes more than 70 percent of the 
     total assistance provided to that region;
       Whereas the United States has pledged $299,000,000 in 
     humanitarian aid to Darfur through fiscal year 2005, as well 
     as $11,800,000 in support of the African Union mission in 
     that region, and is likely to provide support in excess of 
     those pledges;
       Whereas United States citizens and private organizations, 
     as well as the United States Government, have admirably 
     worked, at great risk and through great effort, to ease 
     suffering in Darfur, Sudan, and in eastern Chad;
       Whereas, based on credible reports, Congress determined in 
     late July 2004 that acts of genocide were occurring in 
     Darfur, Sudan, and that the Government of Sudan bears direct 
     responsibility for many of those acts of genocide;
       Whereas, expressing its grave concern at the ongoing 
     humanitarian crisis and widespread human rights violations in 
     Darfur, including continued attacks on civilians that place 
     thousands of lives at risk, the United Nations Security 
     Council on July 30, 2004, unanimously adopted Security 
     Council Resolution 1556, which called upon the Government of 
     Sudan to fulfill immediately its obligations to facilitate 
     humanitarian relief efforts, to take steps to disarm 
     immediately the Janjaweed militias responsible for attacks on 
     civilians and bring the perpetrators of such attacks to 
     justice, and to cooperate with independent United Nations-
     sponsored investigations of human rights violations;
       Whereas the Government of Sudan has failed to take credible 
     steps to comply with the demands of the international 
     community as expressed through the United Nations Security 
     Council;
       Whereas, according to press reports, reports from 
     nongovernmental organizations, first-hand accounts from 
     refugees, and other sources, the Janjaweed attacks on the 
     civilians of Darfur continue unabated as of September 2004;
       Whereas there are credible reports from some of these same 
     sources that the Government of Sudan is providing assistance 
     to the Janjaweed militias and, in some cases, that Government 
     of Sudan forces have participated directly in attacks on 
     civilians;
       Whereas the United States Government, after conducting more 
     than 1,000 interviews with survivors and refugees, has 
     determined that genocide has occurred in Darfur, that it may 
     still be occurring, and that both the Janjaweed and the 
     Government of Sudan bear responsibility for these acts;
       Whereas the Secretary of State has determined that the 
     attacks by the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed on the 
     non-Arab people of Darfur and their villages are based on 
     race, not religion;
       Whereas the United States has recently introduced a new 
     resolution in the United Nations Security Council that calls 
     for the Government of Sudan to cooperate fully with an 
     expanded African Union force and for a cessation of Sudanese 
     military flights over Darfur;
       Whereas the introduced resolution also provides for 
     international overflights of the Darfur region to monitor the 
     situation on the ground and requires the United Nations 
     Security Council to review the record of compliance of the 
     Government of Sudan to determine whether the United Nations 
     should impose sanctions on Sudan, including sanctions 
     affecting the petroleum sector in that country;
       Whereas the resolution also urges the Government of Sudan 
     and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement to conclude 
     negotiations on a comprehensive peace accord and, most 
     important, calls for a United Nations investigation into all 
     violations of international humanitarian law and human rights 
     law that have occurred in Darfur in order to ensure 
     accountability;
       Whereas the United Nations Security Council, in United 
     Nations Security Council Resolution 1556, emphasized that the 
     Government of Sudan bears primary responsibility for 
     respecting human rights and protecting the people of Sudan;
       Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 1556 
     calls upon the Government of Sudan to cooperate with the 
     United Nations;
       Whereas the United Nations Human Rights Commission, 
     established in 1946 and given the responsibility of drafting 
     the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is responsible for 
     promoting respect for and observance of, human rights and 
     fundamental freedoms for all;
       Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares 
     that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and 
     rights, that everyone is entitled to all the rights and 
     freedoms set forth in the Declaration regardless of race, 
     color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, 
     or national or social origin, property, birth, or other 
     status that everyone has the right to life, liberty and 
     security of person, that no one shall be held in slavery or 
     servitude, and that no one shall be subjected to torture or 
     to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment;
       Whereas the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of 
     Genocide, done at Paris on December 9, 1948 (hereafter in 
     this resolution referred to as the ``Genocide Convention''), 
     delineates the criteria that constitute genocide and requires 
     parties to prevent and punish genocide;
       Whereas Sudan is a state party to the Genocide Convention 
     and remains a member of the United Nations Commission on 
     Human Rights;
       Whereas the Secretary of State determined that, according 
     to United States law, the Government of Sudan is a state 
     sponsor of terrorism and has been since 1993 and therefore 
     remains ineligible for U.S. foreign assistance;
       Whereas, due to the human rights situation in Darfur, it 
     would be consistent with United States obligations under the 
     Genocide Convention for the Secretary of State and the United 
     States Permanent Representative to the United Nations to seek 
     the immediate suspension of Sudan from the United Nations 
     Commission on Human Rights and, in the event a formal 
     investigation results in a determination by the UN that 
     genocide has occurred in Darfur, the ultimate removal of 
     Sudan from such Commission; and
       Whereas it is a mockery of human rights as a universal 
     principle, a challenge to the United Nations as an 
     institution, and an affront to all responsible countries that 
     embrace and promote human rights that a government under 
     investigation by the United Nations for committing genocide 
     against, and violating the human rights of, its own citizens 
     sits in judgment of others as a member in good standing of 
     the United Nations Commission on Human Rights: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That Congress--
       (1) recognizes and approves of the findings of the 
     Secretary of State that genocide has occurred and may still 
     be occurring in Darfur, Sudan, and that the Government of 
     Sudan bears responsibility for such acts;
       (2) supports the Secretary of State's call for a full and 
     unfettered investigation by the United Nations into all 
     violations of international humanitarian law and human rights 
     law that have occurred in Darfur, with a view to ensuring 
     accountability;
       (3) supports the resolution introduced by the United States 
     Government in the United Nations Security Council on 
     September 9, 2004, with regard to the situation in Darfur;
       (4) calls upon the Secretary of State and the United States 
     Permanent Representative to the United Nations to take 
     immediate steps to pursue the establishment of a formal 
     United Nations investigation, under Article VIII of the 
     Genocide Convention to determine whether the actions of the 
     Government of Sudan in Darfur constitute acts of genocide;
       (5) calls upon the Secretary of State and the United States 
     Permanent Representative to the United Nations to take 
     immediate steps to pursue the immediate suspension of Sudan 
     from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights;
       (6) calls upon the Secretary of State and the United States 
     Permanent Representative to the United Nations to take 
     further steps to ensure that the suspension of Sudan from the 
     United Nations Commission on Human Rights remains in effect 
     unless and until the Government of Sudan meets all of its 
     obligations, as determined by the United Nations Security 
     Council, under United Nations Security Council Resolution 
     1556 of July 30, 2004, and any subsequent United Nations 
     Security Council resolutions regarding this matter;
       (7) calls upon the Secretary of State and the United States 
     Permanent Representative to the United Nations to take steps 
     to ensure that, in the event that the formal investigation of 
     acts of genocide in Sudan results in a determination by the 
     UN that genocide has occurred or is occurring in Darfur, the 
     United States Government takes appropriate actions to ensure 
     that Sudan is removed from the United Nations Human Rights 
     Commission;
       (8) calls upon the member states of the United Nations 
     Commission on Human Rights to convene an immediate special 
     session to consider the urgent and acute human rights 
     situation in Sudan for the purpose of considering whether 
     Sudan should be suspended from membership in such Commission; 
     and
       (9) expects the Secretary of State to report to Congress on 
     progress made toward taking the actions and accomplishing the 
     objectives outlined in this resolution not later than 60 days 
     after the date on which Congress agrees to the resolution.




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