IV 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1117 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that United States 

assistance to Iraqi Christians, Yazidis, and other minority communities 

victimized by ISIS genocide must be combined with a clear plan for 

local security to facilitate the repatriation of these groups to their ancestral homelands. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 5, 2018 

Mr. FORTENBERRY submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 

the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 

United States assistance to Iraqi Christians, Yazidis, 

and other minority communities victimized by ISIS genocide must be combined with a clear plan for local security 

to facilitate the repatriation of these groups to their 

ancestral homelands. 

Whereas the Nineveh Plain and the wider region have been 

the ancestral homeland of Assyrian Chaldean Syriac 

Christians, Yazidis, Shabak, and others, where they lived 

for centuries until the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria 

(ISIS) overran and occupied much of the region in 2014; 

Whereas Christians in Iraq once numbered over 1.5 million 

in 2003 and have dwindled to less than 200,000 today; 


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•HRES 1117 IH 

Whereas the United States President, Vice President, Congress, and Secretary of State have recognized that ISIS 

has committed genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other crimes against Christians, Yazidis, and 

other religious and ethnic minorities; 

Whereas these atrocities were undertaken with the specific intent to bring about the eradication and displacement of 

Christians, Yazidis, and other communities and the destruction of their cultural heritage in violation of the 

United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; 

Whereas it is consistent with the commitments of the Republic of Iraq, the Kurdish Regional Government, the United 

States, and the international community to guarantee the 

restoration of fundamental human rights, including property rights, to genocide victims, and to see that ethnic 

and religious pluralism survives in Iraq; 

Whereas the Vice President announced the ‘‘Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response Program’’ in which ‘‘the 

State Department and the U.S. Agency for International 

Development will closely partner with local faith and 

community leaders to rapidly deliver aid to persecuted 

communities, beginning with Iraq. Crucially, this support 

will flow directly to individuals and households most in 

need of help’’; 

Whereas facilitating the success of these communities and ensuring that they can flourish require an appropriate local 

security plan: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives ex2 presses that— 


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•HRES 1117 IH 

1 (1) it should be a policy priority of the United 

2 States to support the secure return of displaced in3 digenous people of the Nineveh Plain and Sinjar to 

4 their ancestral homeland, working with international 

5 partners, the Government of Iraq, and the 

6 Kurdistan Regional Government; 

7 (2) the United States Department of Defense, 

8 the National Security Council, the Department of 

9 State, and other relevant Government entities should 

10 swiftly develop a coordinated and implementable 

11 plan for a stabilization and security mission, in co12 operation with the Government of Iraq and the 

13 Kurdish Regional Government, to train indigenous 

14 police units and regularized military structures that 

15 include Christian and Yazidi local security forces 

16 with an emphasis on the Nineveh Plain and Sinjar; 

17 (3) the United States should develop this plan 

18 in coordination with international partners; and 

19 (4) the Secretary of State, or the Secretary’s 

20 designee, should actively participate in the develop21 ment of this strategy. 

Æ 


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