[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11552-11553]
[From the U.S. 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 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--

[[Page 11553]]

       (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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