[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 467 Referred in Senate (RFS)]
2d Session
H. CON. RES. 467
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 7, 2004
Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Declaring genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
Whereas Article 1 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide (signed at Paris on December 9, 1948) states that
``the Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in
time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law
which they undertake to prevent and to punish'';
Whereas Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide declares that ``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; and (e) forcibly transferring children
of the group to another group'';
Whereas Article 3 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide affirms that ``[the] following acts shall be
punishable: (a) genocide; (b) conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) direct
and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) attempt to committed
genocide; and (e) complicit in genocide'';
Whereas in Darfur, Sudan, an estimated 30,000 innocent civilians have been
brutally murdered, more than 130,000 people have been forced from their
homes and have fled to neighboring Chad, and more than 1,000,000 people
have been internally displaced; and
Whereas in March 2004 the United Nations Resident Humanitarian Coordinator
stated: ``[T]he war in Darfur started off in a small way last year but
it has progressively gotten worse. A predominant feature of this is that
the brunt is being borne by civilians. This includes vulnerable women
and children . . . The violence in Darfur appears to be particularly
directed at a specific group based on their ethnic identity and appears
to be systemized.'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That Congress--
(1) declares that the atrocities unfolding in Darfur,
Sudan, are genocide;
(2) reminds the Contracting Parties to the Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (signed
at Paris on December 9, 1948), particularly the Government of
Sudan, of their legal obligations under the Convention;
(3) declares that the Government of Sudan, as a Contracting
Party, has violated the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;
(4) deplores the failure of the United Nations Human Rights
Commission to take appropriate action with respect to the
crisis in Darfur, Sudan, particularly the failure by the
Commission to support United States-sponsored efforts to
strongly condemn gross human rights violations committed in
Darfur, and calls upon the United Nations and the United
Nations Secretary General to assert leadership by calling the
atrocities being committed in Darfur by their rightful name:
``genocide'';
(5) calls on the member states of the United Nations,
particularly member states from the African Union, the Arab
League, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to
undertake measures to prevent the genocide in Darfur, Sudan,
from escalating further, including the imposition of targeted
sanctions against those responsible for the atrocities;
(6) urges the Administration to call the atrocities being
committed in Darfur, Sudan, by their rightful name:
``genocide'';
(7) commends the Administration's leadership in seeking a
peaceful resolution to the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, and in
addressing the ensuing humanitarian crisis, including the visit
of Secretary of State Colin Powell to Darfur in June 2004 to
engage directly in efforts to end the genocide, and the
provision of nearly $140,000,000 to date in bilateral
humanitarian assistance through the United States Agency for
International Development;
(8) commends the President for appointing former Senator
John Danforth as Envoy for Peace in Sudan on September 6, 2001,
and further commends the appointment of Senator Danforth as
United States Ambassador to the United Nations;
(9) calls on the Administration to continue to lead an
international effort to stop genocide in Darfur, Sudan;
(10) urges the Administration to seriously consider
multilateral or even unilateral intervention to stop genocide
in Darfur, Sudan, should the United Nations Security Council
fail to act;
(11) calls on the Administration to impose targeted
sanctions, including visa bans and the freezing of assets of
the Sudanese National Congress and affiliated business and
individuals directly responsible for the atrocities in Darfur,
Sudan; and
(12) calls on the United States Agency for International
Development to establish a Darfur Resettlement, Rehabilitation,
and Reconstruction Fund so that those individuals driven off
their land may return and begin to rebuild their communities.
Passed the House of Representatives July 22, 2004.
Attest:
JEFF TRANDAHL,
Clerk.