[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 153 (Thursday, September 22, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S4984]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 5585. Mr. CORNYN (for himself, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Blumenthal,
Mr. Boozman, Mr. Tillis, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Kaine, and Ms. Collins)
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 5499
submitted by Mr. Reed (for himself and Mr. Inhofe) and intended to be
proposed to the bill H.R. 7900, to authorize appropriations for fiscal
year 2023 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for
military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of
Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year,
and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:
At the end of subtitle C of title XII, add the following:
SEC. 1239. UNITED STATES EFFORTS WITH RESPECT TO WAR CRIMES
AND OTHER ATROCITIES COMMITTED DURING RUSSIAN
INVASION OF UKRAINE.
(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) in its premeditated, unprovoked, unjustified, and
unlawful full-scale invasion of Ukraine that commenced on
February 24, 2022, the military of the Government of the
Russian Federation under the direction of President Vladimir
Putin has committed war crimes that include--
(A) the deliberate targeting of civilians and injuring or
killing of noncombatants;
(B) the deliberate targeting and attacking of hospitals,
schools, and other non-military buildings dedicated to
religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, such as the
bombing of a theater in Mariupol that served as a shelter for
noncombatants and had the word ``children'' written clearly
in the Russian language outside;
(C) the indiscriminate bombardment of undefended dwellings
and buildings;
(D) the wanton destruction of property not justified by
military necessity;
(E) unlawful civilian deportations;
(F) the taking of hostages; and
(G) rape, or sexual assault or abuse;
(2) the use of chemical weapons by the Government of the
Russian Federation in Ukraine would constitute a war crime,
and engaging in any military preparations to use chemical
weapons or to develop, produce, stockpile, or retain chemical
weapons is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention, to
which the Russian Federation is a signatory;
(3) Vladimir Putin has a long record of committing acts of
aggression, systematic abuses of human rights, and acts that
constitute war crimes or other atrocities both at home and
abroad, and the brutality and scale of these actions,
including in the Russian Federation republic of Chechnya,
Georgia, Syria, and Ukraine, demonstrate the extent to which
his regime is willing to flout international norms and values
in the pursuit of its objectives;
(4) Vladimir Putin has previously sanctioned the use of
chemical weapons at home and abroad, including in the
poisonings of Russian spy turned double agent Sergei Skripal
and his daughter Yulia and leading Russian opposition figure
Aleksey Navalny, and aided and abetted the use of chemical
weapons by President Bashar al-Assad in Syria; and
(5) in 2014, the Government of the Russian Federation
initiated its unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine
which resulted in its illegal occupation of Crimea, the
unrecognized declaration of independence by the so-called
``Donetsk People's Republic'' and ``Luhansk People's
Republic'' by Russia-backed proxies, and numerous human
rights violations and deaths of civilians in Ukraine.
(b) Statement of Policy.--It is the policy of the United
States--
(1) to collect, analyze, and preserve evidence and
information related to war crimes and other atrocities
committed during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine
that began on February 24, 2022, for use in appropriate
domestic, foreign, and international courts and tribunals
prosecuting those responsible for such crimes;
(2) to help deter the commission of war crimes and other
atrocities in Ukraine by publicizing to the maximum possible
extent, including among Russian and other foreign military
commanders and troops in Ukraine, efforts to identify and
prosecute those responsible for the commission of war crimes
during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that began
on February 24, 2022; and
(3) to continue efforts to identify, deter, and pursue
accountability for war crimes and other atrocities committed
around the world and by other perpetrators, and to leverage
international cooperation and best practices in this regard
with respect to the current situation in Ukraine.
(c) Report on United States Efforts.--Not later than 90
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and
consistent with the protection of intelligence sources and
methods, the President shall submit to the appropriate
congressional committees a report, which may include a
classified annex, describing in detail the following:
(1) United States Government efforts to collect, analyze,
and preserve evidence and information related to war crimes
and other atrocities committed during the full-scale Russian
invasion of Ukraine since February 24, 2022, including a
description of--
(A) the respective roles of various agencies, departments,
and offices, and the interagency mechanism established for
the coordination of such efforts;
(B) the types of information and evidence that are being
collected, analyzed, and preserved to help identify those
responsible for the commission of war crimes or other
atrocities during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine
in 2022; and
(C) steps taken to coordinate with, and support the work
of, allies, partners, international institutions and
organizations, and nongovernmental organizations in such
efforts.
(2) Media, public diplomacy, and information operations to
make Russian military commanders, troops, political leaders,
and the Russian people aware of efforts to identify and
prosecute those responsible for the commission of war crimes
or other atrocities during the full-scale Russian invasion of
Ukraine in 2022, and of the types of acts that may be
prosecutable.
(3) The process for a domestic, foreign, or international
court or tribunal to request and obtain from the United
States Government information related to war crimes or other
atrocities committed during the full-scale Russian invasion
of Ukraine in 2022.
(d) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on
the Judiciary, and the Select Committee on Intelligence of
the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on the
Judiciary, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
of the House of Representatives.
(2) Atrocities.--The term ``atrocities'' has the meaning
given that term in section 6(2) of the Elie Wiesel Genocide
and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-441; 22
U.S.C. 2656 note).
(3) War crime.--The term ``war crime'' has the meaning
given that term in section 2441(c) of title 18, United States
Code.
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