IV

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. RES. 606

Calling upon the President to provide for the appropriate training of Foreign

Service officers and other executive branch personnel in the primacy

of democratic values and internationally recognized human rights.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OCTOBER 3, 2000

Mr. ROHRABACHER (for himself, Mr. LANTOS, Mr. BURTON, and Mr.

FALEOMAVAEGA) submitted the following resolution; which was referred

to the Committee on International Relations

RESOLUTION

Calling upon the President to provide for the appropriate

training of Foreign Service officers and other executive

branch personnel in the primacy of democratic values

and internationally recognized human rights.

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘United States

3 Training on and Recognition of Man’s Inhumanity to Man

4 or Twentieth Century Atrocities Resolution’’.

5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

6 The Congress finds the following:
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1 (1) Evidence of man’s inhumanity to man has

2 been present since the beginnings of recorded his3 tory.

4 (2) The impact of man’s inhumanity to man on

5 history and the development of human civilization

6 has been so tragic and devastating as to have called

7 forth numerous responses at different times and in

8 many different cultures to restrain the human appe9 tite for violence, domination, and intolerance.

10 (3) The history of the modern age since the rise

11 of the democratic spirit during the eighteenth cen12 tury provides evidence that the solution to the di13 lemma of man’s inhumanity to man lies, at least in

14 part, with the establishment of democratic political

15 and social systems that are based on the equality of

16 all citizens before the law, the public accountability

17 of the governors to the governed, and on mutual tol18 erance.

19 (4) Despite the best efforts of democratic na20 tions and the ameliorating influence of the universal

21 religious and humanist traditions, the twentieth cen22 tury was the bloodiest in history, with an estimated

23 175,000,000 people worldwide having lost their lives

24 because of politically motivated violence, genocide,
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1 ethnic cleaning, planned starvation, and other forms

2 of exploitation and basic cruelty.

3 (5) These atrocities have included injustices

4 perpetrated against, inter alia, the Jewish, Slavic,

5 and Roma populations of Nazi-controlled territories

6 in Europe; the victims of the Gulag, state-imposed

7 famine and brutal relocation policies followed by the

8 government of the Soviet Union; the victims of the

9 land reform program, the Great Leap Forward pro10 gram, and the Cultural Revolution in the People’s

11 Republic of China; the Tibetan population in Chi12 nese-controlled Tibet; the victims of the Pol Pot re13 gime in Cambodia; the Hutu population of Rwanda;

14 the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire;

15 the Kurdish population of northern Iraq and the

16 Shi’a population of southern Iraq; the Moslem and

17 Croat populations of the former Yugoslavia; the vic18 tims caused by the apartheid system in South Afri19 ca, and of slavery everywhere; the victims of reli20 gious fundamentalism, particularly in Iran; the vic21 tims of the Sudanese and Libyan governments; the

22 Albanian population of Kosova; the decimated tribes

23 of Amazon rain forest; and others.

24 (6) The spread of democratic values and insti25 tutional practices, particularly since the recent
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1 downfall in numerous countries of ruling regimes

2 based on fascism, communism, and other forms of

3 racial, religious, and national exclusivity offers hope

4 at the dawn of this twenty-first century that human5 kind may finally find the means effectively to re6 strain the sinister motivations of which human na7 tures is capable at an organized or institutional

8 level.

9 (7) The United States of America, by virtue of

10 its experience in the ongoing struggle to redeem the

11 promises of its own founding documents and ideals,

12 is well qualified to provide assistance, as appro13 priate, to other nations and societies in their strug14 gle to achieve similarly lofty goals.

15 SEC. 3. DECLARATION OF POLICY.

16 The House of Representatives calls upon the Presi17 dent to provide for the appropriate training of Foreign

18 Service officers and other executive branch personnel who

19 have occasion to respond to issues related to man’s inhu20 manity to man, with such training to include an emphasis

21 on the primacy of democratic values and internationally

22 recognized human rights and the means available to the

23 United States, acting singly or in concert with other na24 tions, to promote and enforce those values and rights.

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