[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 40 (Monday, March 14, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S1467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 33--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT 
  THOSE WHO COMMIT OR SUPPORT ATROCITIES AGAINST CHRISTIANS AND OTHER 
  ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS MINORITIES, INCLUDING YEZIDIS, TURKMEN, SABEA-
   MANDEANS, KAKA`E, AND KURDS, AND WHO TARGET THEM SPECIFICALLY FOR 
ETHNIC OR RELIGIOUS REASONS, ARE COMMITTING, AND ARE HEREBY DECLARED TO 
    BE COMMITTING, ``WAR CRIMES'', ``CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY'', AND 
                              ``GENOCIDE''

  Mr. SASSE submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                            S. Con. Res. 33

       Whereas those who commit or support atrocities against 
     Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities, 
     including Yezidis, Turkmen, Sabea-Mandeans, Kaka`e, and 
     Kurds, and who target them specifically for ethnic or 
     religious reasons, intend to exterminate or to force the 
     migration or submission of anyone who does not share their 
     views concerning religion;
       Whereas Christians and other ethnic and religious 
     minorities have been an integral part of the cultural fabric 
     of the Middle East for millennia;
       Whereas Christians and other ethnic and religious 
     minorities have been murdered, subjugated, forced to 
     emigrate, and suffered grievous bodily and psychological 
     harm, including sexual enslavement and abuse, inflicted in a 
     deliberate and calculated manner in violation of the laws of 
     their respective nations, the laws of war, laws and treaties 
     forbidding crimes against humanity, and the United Nations 
     Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
     Genocide, signed at Paris December 9, 1948 (in this 
     concurrent resolution referred to as the ``Convention'');
       Whereas these atrocities are undertaken with the specific 
     intent to bring about the eradication and displacement of 
     their communities and the destruction of their cultural 
     heritage in violation of local laws, the laws of war, laws 
     and treaties that punish crimes against humanity, and the 
     Convention;
       Whereas local, national, and international laws and 
     treaties forbidding ``war crimes'' and ``crimes against 
     humanity'' and the Convention condemn murder, massacre, 
     forced migration, extrajudicial punishment, kidnapping, 
     slavery, human trafficking, torture, rape, and persecution of 
     individuals because of their religion and shall be punished, 
     whether committed by ``constitutionally responsible rulers, 
     public officials or private individuals'' as provided by 
     local laws, international laws and agreements, and the 
     Convention;
       Whereas Article I of the Convention and international and 
     local laws confirm that genocide and crimes against humanity, 
     whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, are 
     crimes that government authorities are obligated to prevent 
     and to punish;
       Whereas Article II of the Convention declares, ``In the 
     present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts 
     committed with the 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.'';
       Whereas Article III of the Convention affirms, ``The 
     following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) 
     Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public 
     incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit 
     genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide.'';
       Whereas, on July 10, 2015, Pope Francis, Supreme Pontiff of 
     the Roman Catholic Church, declared that Middle Eastern 
     Christians are facing genocide, a reality that must be 
     ``denounced'' and that ``[i]n this third world war, waged 
     piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of 
     genocide--and I stress the word genocide--is taking place, 
     and it must end'';
       Whereas a March 13, 2015, report of the United Nations 
     Committee on Human Rights prepared at the request of the 
     Government of Iraq stated that ``[e]thnic and religious 
     groups targeted by ISIL include Yezidis, Christians, Turkmen, 
     Sabea-Mandeans, Kaka`e, Kurds and Shi'a'' and that ``[i]t is 
     reasonable to conclude that some of the incidents [in Iraq in 
     2014-2015] . . . may constitute genocide''; and
       Whereas attacks on Yezidis included the mass killing of men 
     and boys and enslavement and forcible transfer of women and 
     children: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That--
       (1) the atrocities committed against Christians and other 
     ethnic and religious minorities targeted specifically for 
     religious reasons are, and are hereby declared to be, 
     ``crimes against humanity'', and ``genocide'';
       (2) each of the Contracting Parties to the United Nations 
     Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
     Genocide, signed at Paris December 9, 1948, and other 
     international agreements forbidding war crimes and crimes 
     against humanity, particularly the governments of countries 
     and their nationals who are in any way supporting these 
     crimes, are reminded of their legal obligations under the 
     Convention and these international agreements;
       (3) every government and multinational body should call the 
     atrocities being committed in the name of religion by their 
     rightful names: ``crimes against humanity'', ``war crimes'', 
     and ``genocide'';
       (4) the United Nations and the United Nations Secretary-
     General are called upon to assert leadership by calling the 
     atrocities being committed in these places by their rightful 
     names: ``war crimes'', ``crimes against humanity'', and 
     ``genocide'';
       (5) the member states of the United Nations, with an urgent 
     appeal to the Arab States that wish to uphold religious 
     freedom, tolerance, and justice--
       (A) should join in this concurrent resolution;
       (B) should collaborate on measures to prevent further war 
     crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide; and
       (C) should collaborate on the establishment and operation 
     of domestic, regional and international tribunals to punish 
     those responsible for the ongoing crimes;
       (6) the governments of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the 
     Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Lebanese Republic, and other 
     countries are commended for having undertaken to shelter and 
     protect those fleeing the violence of the Islamic State in 
     Iraq and Syria (``ISIS'' or ``Da'esh'') and other extremists 
     until they can safely return to their homes in Iraq and 
     Syria; and
       (7) all those who force the migration of religious 
     communities from their ancestral homelands, where they have 
     lived and practiced their faith in safety and stability for 
     hundreds of years--including specifically in the Nineveh 
     Plain, a historic heartland of Christianity in Iraq and Mount 
     Sinjar, the historic home of the Yezidis--should be tracked, 
     sanctioned, arrested, prosecuted, and punished in accordance 
     with the laws of the place where their crimes were committed 
     and under applicable international criminal statutes and 
     conventions.

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