[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 14, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5088-S5089]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SYRIAN WAR CRIMES ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2015
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 117, S. 756.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 756) to require a report on accountability for
war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
Mr. ALEXANDER. I further ask unanimous consent that the bill be read
a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made
and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill (S. 756) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading,
was read the third time, and passed, as follows:
S. 756
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 ``Syrian War Crimes
Accountability Act of 2015''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) March 2015 marks the fourth year of the ongoing
conflict in Syria.
(2) On December 17, 2014, the United Nations Security
Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2191 ``expressing
outrage at the unacceptable and escalating level of violence
and the killing of more than 191,000 people, including well
over 10,000 children'' and approximately 1,000,000 injured in
Syria.
(3) More than half of Syria's population is displaced as of
March 2015, with more than 7,600,000 internally displaced and
more than 3,700,000 refugees in neighboring countries.
(4) On February 19, 2015, United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon reported to the Security Council that ``parties
to the conflict are failing to live up to their international
legal obligations to protect civilians'' and called for
action to ensure the unfettered delivery of humanitarian
relief, an end to the use of denial of services as a weapon
of war, and a response to ``the relentless and indiscriminate
attacks on civilians, including through the use of barrel
bombs''.
(5) On February 27, 2014, the Department of State issued
its 2013 Human Rights Report on Syria, which described
President Bashar al Assad's use of ``indiscriminate and
deadly force'' in the conflict, including the August 21,
2013, use of ``sarin gas and artillery to target East Ghouta
and Moadamiya al-Sham, suburbs of Damascus, which killed over
1,000 people''.
(6) The 2014 United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom Annual Report states that in Syria
``terrorist organizations espouse violence and the creation
of an Islamic state with no space for religious diversity and
have carried out religiously-motivated attacks and massacres
against Alawite, Shi'a and Christian civilians.''
(7) On February 4, 2015, the Executive Council of the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
adopted a decision expressing serious concern about the
findings ``with a high degree of confidence'' of an OPCW
fact-finding mission
[[Page S5089]]
that chlorine had been used as a weapon in some areas of
Syria in 2014 and calling for those individuals responsible
to be held accountable.
(8) The United Nations Independent International Commission
of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic reports that pro-
government forces have conducted attacks on Syrian civilian
populations, and have utilized murder, torture, assault, and
rape as war tactics. Anti-government groups have also
committed murder and torture, engaged in hostage-taking,
attacked protected objects, and shelled civilian
neighborhoods. The Commission's February 2015 report states
that Syria's civil war ``has been characterized by massive,
recurrent violations of human rights and international
humanitarian law that demand urgent international and
national action''.
(9) On March 12, 2015, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)
reported that since 2011, at least 610 medical personnel have
been killed and there have been 233 deliberate or
indiscriminate attacks on 183 medical facilities in Syria.
The Physicians for Human Rights report cited evidence that
the Government of Syria committed 88 percent of the recorded
hospital attacks and 97 percent of medical personnel
killings, and ``has targeted health care and increasingly
used it as a weapon of war to destroy its opponents by
preventing care, killing thousands of civilians along the
way''.
(10) Internationally accepted rules of war require actors
to distinguish between civilians and combatants and that all
parties are obligated to respect and protect the wounded and
sick and to take care all reasonable measures to provide safe
and prompt access for the wounded and sick to medical care.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
Congress--
(1) strongly condemns the ongoing violence, use of chemical
weapons, targeting of civilian populations with barrel,
incendiary, and cluster bombs and SCUD missiles, and
systematic gross human rights violations carried out by
Government of Syria and pro-government forces under the
direction of President Bashar al-Assad, as well as all abuses
committed by violent extremist groups and other combatants
involved in the civil war in Syria;
(2) expresses its support for the people of Syria seeking
democratic change;
(3) urges all parties to the conflict to immediately halt
indiscriminate attacks on civilians, allow for the delivery
of humanitarian and medical assistance, and end sieges of
civilian populations;
(4) calls on the President to support efforts in Syria and
on the part of the international community to ensure
accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity
committed during the conflict; and
(5) supports the requirement in United Nations Security
Council Resolutions 2191, 2165 and 2139 for regular reporting
by the Secretary-General on implementation on the
resolutions, including of paragraph 2 of resolution 2139,
which demands that all parties desist from violations of
international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of
human rights and calls on the Security Council to establish a
committee to investigate past and ongoing gross violations of
human rights and war crimes in the Syrian conflict.
SEC. 4. REPORT ON ACCOUNTABILITY FOR WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES
AGAINST HUMANITY IN SYRIA.
(a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, and again not later than 180 days
after the cessation of violence in Syria, the Secretary of
State shall submit to the appropriate congressional
committees a report on war crimes and crimes against humanity
in Syria.
(b) Elements.--The report required under subsection (a)
shall include the following elements:
(1) A description of violations of internationally
recognized human rights, war crimes, and crimes against
humanity perpetrated during the civil war in Syria,
including--
(A) an account of incidents that may constitute war crimes
and crimes against humanity committed by the regime of
President Bashar al-Assad and all forces fighting on its
behalf;
(B) an account of incidents that may constitute war crimes
and crimes against humanity committed by violent extremist
groups, anti-government forces, and any other combatants in
the conflict;
(C) a description of any incidents that may violate the
principle of medical neutrality and, when possible, an
identification of the individual or individuals who engaged
in or organized such violations; and
(D) where possible, a description of the conventional and
unconventional weapons used for such crimes and, the origins
of the weapons.
(2) A description of efforts by the Department of State and
the United States Agency for International Development to
ensure accountability for violations of internationally
recognized human rights, international humanitarian law, and
crimes against humanity perpetrated against the people of
Syria by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, violent
extremist groups, and other combatants involved in the
conflict, including--
(A) a description of initiatives that the United States
Government has undertaken to train investigators in Syria on
how to document, investigate, and develop findings of war
crimes, including the number of United States Government or
contract personnel currently designated to work full-time on
these issues and an identification of the authorities and
appropriations being used to support training efforts;
(B) a description and assessment of Syrian and
international efforts to ensure accountability for crimes
committed during the Syrian conflict, including efforts to
promote a transitional justice process that would include
criminal accountability and the establishment of an ad hoc
tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes
committed during the civil war in Syria; and
(C) an assessment of the influence of accountability
measures on efforts to reach a negotiated settlement to the
conflict during the reporting period.
(c) Form.--The report required under subsection (a) may be
in unclassified or classified form, but shall include a
publicly available annex.
(d) Appropriate Congressional Committee Defined.--In this
section, the term ``appropriate congressional committees''
means--
(1) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; and
(2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives.
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