[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 537 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 537

 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding United 
            States policy recognizing the Assyrian Genocide.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 2, 2019

Mr. Harder of California submitted the following resolution; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding United 
            States policy recognizing the Assyrian Genocide.

Whereas the Ottoman Empire committed the crime of genocide against the Assyrian 
        people, killing at least 300,000 innocent Assyrians during the time of 
        the First World War;
Whereas Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term ``genocide'' in 1944, drew on the 
        history of the Assyrian Genocide in his seminal work that guided the 
        United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide;
Whereas the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public 
        Law 115-441) establishes that atrocities prevention represents a United 
        States national interest, and affirms that it is the policy of the 
        United States to pursue a United States Government-wide strategy to 
        identify, prevent, and respond to the risk of atrocities by 
        ``strengthening diplomatic response and the effective use of foreign 
        assistance to support appropriate transitional justice measures, 
        including criminal accountability, for past atrocities'';
Whereas the resilience and endurance of the Assyrian people is still commendable 
        and praiseworthy, despite being victims of an ethnocide that is being 
        continued by the Islamic State;
Whereas American families continue to feel the effects of the Assyrian Genocide, 
        including families that have never been reunited since;
Whereas recognition and commemoration of a genocide is critical to efforts to 
        prevent both future genocides and further harm to the group upon which 
        the genocide was committed; and
Whereas the Assyrian Genocide remains unrecognized by many countries and 
        organizations across the globe, including the United States: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
it is the policy of the United States to--
            (1) commemorate the Assyrian Genocide through official 
        recognition and remembrance;
            (2) reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise 
        associate the United States Government with denial of the 
        Assyrian Genocide or any other genocide;
            (3) call upon the Republic of Turkey to officially 
        recognize the Assyrian Genocide; and
            (4) encourage education and public understanding of the 
        facts of the Assyrian Genocide, including the United States 
        role in the humanitarian relief effort, and the relevance of 
        the Assyrian Genocide to modern-day crimes against humanity.
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