[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 340 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]
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114th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 340
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the atrocities perpetrated by
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against religious and
ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria include war crimes, crimes against
humanity, and genocide.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 18, 2015
Mr. Cassidy (for himself, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Wicker,
Mr. Peters, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Blunt, Ms. Ayotte, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr.
Tillis, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Isakson, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Burr,
Ms. Klobuchar, and Mr. Scott) submitted the following resolution; which
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
April 28, 2016
Reported by Mr. Corker, with an amendment and an amendment to the
preamble and an amendment to the title
July 7, 2016
Considered, amended, and agreed to with an amended preamble and an
amendment to the title
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the atrocities perpetrated by
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against religious and
ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria include war crimes, crimes against
humanity, and genocide.
Whereas Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities have been an
integral part of the cultural fabric of the Middle East for millennia;
Whereas the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or Da'esh) and associated
extremists are committing egregious atrocities against ethnic and
religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, including Christians (among them
Assyrian Chaldean Syriac, Armenian, Evangelicals, Antiochian and Greek
Orthodox, Maronite, Melkite, and Roman Catholic communities), Yezidis,
Turkmen, Shi'a, Shabak, Sabaean-Mandeans, and Kaka'i, among others;
Whereas ISIL specifically targets these religious and ethnic minorities,
intending to kill them or force their submission, conversion, or
expulsion;
Whereas religious and ethnic minorities have been murdered, subjugated, forced
to emigrate, and subjected to grievous bodily and psychological harm,
kidnapping, human trafficking, torture, and rape;
Whereas ISIL engages in, and publicly argues in favor of, the sexual enslavement
of non-Muslim women, including prepubescent girls;
Whereas the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the United
Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said in a January 2016 report that
it believes ISIL is holding around 3,500 slaves, predominantly women and
children, ``primarily from the Yezidi community, but a number are also
from other ethnic and religious minority communities'';
Whereas ISIL specifically targets religious and ethnic minorities, and has
reportedly kidnapped, forcibly displaced, killed, raped, electrocuted,
and crucified members of ethnic and religious groups, including
Christian, Shabak, Turkmen, and Shia of all ethnicities;
Whereas ISIL has deliberately destroyed and looted numerous cultural sites,
religious shrines, places of worship, monasteries, and museums in order
to eradicate the cultures of ethnic and religious minorities;
Whereas these atrocities have been undertaken with the specific intent to bring
about the eradication of those communities and the destruction of their
cultural heritage;
Whereas ISIL operations have in fact driven minority religious and ethnic
communities from their ancestral homelands;
Whereas under applicable domestic and international law codified in section 2441
of title 18, United States Code, murder, torture, mutilation, rape,
cruel treatment, and hostage taking of non-combatants constitute war
crimes;
Whereas crimes against humanity, as defined by the International Military
Tribunal convened at Nuremberg in 1945, include murder, extermination,
enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any
civilian population, as well as persecution on political, racial, or
religious grounds in connection with such crimes;
Whereas the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide, signed and ratified by the United States, defines
genocide as ``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 according to the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, in February 2014,
ISIL ordered Christians in Raqqa, Syria to either convert to Islam, pay
jizya, a tax specifically applied on the basis of religious belief, and
accept serious curbs on their faith, or face execution;
Whereas according to the Department of State, in August 2014, as ISIL began to
expand beyond Mosul, an estimated 450,000 Yezidis, 300,000 Turkmen, and
125,000 Christians, as well as Iraqi Arabs, Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims,
Shabak and other ethnic and religious groups, were forced from their
communities;
Whereas in areas controlled by ISIL, churches, monasteries and other places of
worship have effectively been shuttered and do not publicly conduct
worship services;
Whereas, on August 7, 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry declared that ``ISIL's
campaign of terror against the innocent, including Yezidi and Christian
minorities, and its grotesque and targeted acts of violence bear all the
warning signs and hallmarks of genocide'':
Whereas, in August 2014, the United States conducted targeted airstrikes and
humanitarian assistance operations to help break the siege of Mount
Sinjar, saving the lives of thousands of Yezidi men, women, and
children;
Whereas His Holiness, Pope Francis, has noted that ``entire communities,
especially--but not only--Christians and Yezidis, have suffered and are
still suffering inhuman violence because off their ethnic and religious
identity'' and stated that, for Christians being killed for their faith
in the Middle East ``a form of genocide--I insist on the word--is taking
place, and it must end'';
Whereas a March 13, 2015, report by the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights detailed ``acts of violence perpetrated
[by ISIL] against civilians because of their affiliation or perceived
affiliation to an ethnic or religious group'' and stated that ``[i]t is
reasonable to conclude that some of these incidents, considering the
overall information, may constitute genocide'';
Whereas, on December 7, 2015, the United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom called on the United States Government ``to designate
the Christian, Yezidi, Shi'a, Turkmen, and Shabak communities of Iraq
and Syria as victims of genocide by ISIL'' and urged world leaders ``to
condemn the genocidal actions and crimes against humanity of ISIL that
have been directed at these groups and other ethnic and religious
groups'';
Whereas, on February 3, 2016, the European Parliament expressed the view that
ISIL ``is committing genocide against Christians and Yezidis, and other
religious and ethnic minorities''; and
Whereas, on March 17, 2016, Secretary of State John Kerry issued a declaration
stating, that in his judgement, ``Da'esh is responsible for genocide
against groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis,
Christians, and Shia Muslims,'' and is ``also responsible for crimes
against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at these same groups and
in some cases against Sunni Muslims and Kurds and other minorities'':
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
(1) the atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL) against Christians, Yezidis, Shi'a, and
other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria
constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide;
(2) all governments, and international organizations should
call ISIL atrocities by their rightful names: war crimes,
crimes against humanity, and genocide;
(3) the member states of the United Nations should
coordinate urgently on measures to prevent further war crimes,
crimes against humanity, and genocide by ISIL in Iraq and
Syria, and to punish those responsible for these ongoing
crimes, including by the collection and preservation of
evidence and, if necessary, the establishment and operation of
appropriate tribunals;
(4) the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Lebanese Republic,
the Republic of Turkey, and the Kurdistan Regional Government
in Iraq are to be commended for, and supported in, their
efforts to shelter and protect those fleeing the violence of
ISIL and other combatants until they can safely return to their
homes in Iraq and Syria; and
(5) the protracted Syrian civil war and the indiscriminate
violence of the Assad regime have contributed to the growth of
ISIL and will continue to do so as long as this conflict
continues.
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