III 

Calendar No. 447 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 340 

Expressing the sense of Congress that the so-called Islamic State in Iraq 

and al-Sham (ISIS or Da’esh) is committing genocide, crimes against 

humanity, and war crimes, and calling upon the President to work 

with foreign governments and the United Nations to provide physical 

protection for ISIS’ targets, to support the creation of an international 

criminal tribunal with jurisdiction to punish these crimes, and to use 

every reasonable means, including sanctions, to destroy ISIS and disrupt 

its support networks. 

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, and Mr. ISAKSON) 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 

[Strike out all after the resolving clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[Strike the preamble and insert the part printed in italic] 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of Congress that the so-called Islamic 

State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS or Da’esh) is committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, 

and calling upon the President to work with foreign 

governments and the United Nations to provide physical 


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protection for ISIS’ targets, to support the creation of 

an international criminal tribunal with jurisdiction to 

punish these crimes, and to use every reasonable means, 

including sanctions, to destroy ISIS and disrupt its support networks. 

Whereas communities of Assyrian Chaldean Syriac, Armenian, Evangelical, and Melkite Christians; Kurds; Yezidis; 

Shia and Sunni Muslims; Turkmen; Sabea-Mandeans; 

Kaka‘e; and Shabaks have been an integral part of the 

cultural fabric of the Middle East for millennia; 

Whereas Article I of the United Nations Convention on the 

Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 

signed at Paris December 9, 1948 (in this resolution referred to as the ‘‘Convention’’) 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 punish’’; 

Whereas Article II of the Convention declares, ‘‘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; (e) Forcibly transferring children 

of the group to another group.’’; 

Whereas Article III of the Convention affirms, ‘‘The following 

acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to 

commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to 


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commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) 

Complicity in genocide.’’; 

Whereas section 1091 of title 18, United States Code, declares that ‘‘genocide’’ occurs when any person ‘‘whether 

in time of peace or in time of war and with the specific 

intent to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such (1) kills 

members of that group; (2) causes serious bodily injury 

to members of that group; (3) causes the permanent impairment of the mental faculties of members of the group 

through drugs, torture, or similar techniques; (4) subjects 

the group to conditions of life that are intended to cause 

the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part; 

(5) imposes measures intended to prevent births within 

the group; or (6) transfers by force children of the group 

to another group’’; 

Whereas subsection (c) of section 2441 of title 18, United 

States Code, defines a ‘‘war crime’’ as conduct ‘‘(1) defined as a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a 

party; (2) prohibited by Article 23, 25, 27, or 28 of the 

Annex to the Hague Convention IV, Respecting the Laws 

and Customs of War on Land, signed 18 October 1907; 

(3) which constitutes a grave breach of common Article 

3 [defined in subsection (d) of such section as torture, 

cruel or inhuman treatment, performing biological experiments, murder, mutilation or maiming, intentionally 

causing serious bodily injury, rape, sexual assault or 

abuse, or taking hostages] when committed in the context 

of and in association with an armed conflict not of an 

international character; or (4) of a person who, in relaVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:54 Apr 29, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR340.RS SR340

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tion to an armed conflict and contrary to the provisions 

of the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use 

of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices as amended at 

Geneva on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II as amended on 3 

May 1996), when the United States is a party to such 

Protocol, willfully kills or causes serious injury to civilians’’; 

Whereas the United States has ratified the United Nations 

Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime of 

2000, and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish 

Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, 

supplementing the United Nations Convention against 

Transnational Organized Crime, which defines ‘‘trafficking in persons’’ to mean ‘‘the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by 

means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse 

of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving 

or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for 

the purpose of exploitation’’ and defines exploitation as 

including, ‘‘at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, 

forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to 

slavery, servitude or the removal of organs’’; 

Whereas section 2331 of title 18, United States Code, defines 

‘‘international terrorism activities’’ as ‘‘activities that (A) 

involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that 

are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States 

or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if 

committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or 

of any State; (B) appear to be intended (i) to intimidate 


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or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy 

of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to 

affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, 

assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily 

outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or 

transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by 

which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which 

their perpetrators operate or seek asylum’’; 

Whereas section 2332b of title 18, United States Code, defines ‘‘terrorism transcending national boundaries’’ to include ‘‘(A) kill[ings], kidnap[ing]s, maim[ing]s, 

commit[ing] an assault resulting in serious bodily injury, 

or assaults with a dangerous weapon [of or on] any person within the United States; or (B) creat[ing] a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to any other person 

by destroying or damaging any structure, conveyance, or 

other real or personal property within the United States 

or by attempting or conspiring to destroy or damage any 

structure, conveyance, or other real or personal property 

within the United States; in violation of the laws of any 

State, or the United States,’’; 

Whereas the President, with the assistance of the Secretary 

of State and the Ambassador at Large for War Crimes 

Issues, is obligated under section 2113(b) of the ADVANCE Democracy Act of 2007 (22 U.S.C. 8213(b)) to 

‘‘collect information regarding incidents that may constitute crimes against humanity, genocide, slavery, or 

other violations of international humanitarian law’’ and 

‘‘shall consider what actions can be taken to ensure that 

any government of a country or the leaders or senior officials of such government who are responsible for crimes 


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against humanity, genocide, slavery, or other violations of 

international humanitarian law identified [pursuant to 

such collection of information] are brought to account for 

such crimes in an appropriately constituted tribunal’’; 

Whereas Article I of the Convention and the law of nations 

confirm that government authorities are obligated to prevent and punish acts constituting genocide, crimes 

against humanity, and war crimes; 

Whereas, on July 10, 2015, Pope Francis, Supreme Pontiff 

of the Catholic Church, declared that the pattern of 

crimes committed by ISIS and its affiliates against 

Christians are part of a ‘‘third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing,’’ and that ‘‘a form 

of genocide is taking place, and it must end’’; 

Whereas the 2011 Presidential Study Directive on Mass 

Atrocities declares, ‘‘Preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral 

responsibility of the United States . . . [and that] our 

options are never limited to either sending in the military 

or standing by and doing nothing . . . The actions that 

can be taken are many—they range from economic to 

diplomatic interventions, and from non-combat military 

actions to outright intervention.’’; 

Whereas, on August 7, 2014, President Barak Obama authorized military action to stop ISIS’ advance in northern 

Iraq, and ‘‘to prevent a potential act of genocide’’ against 

Yazidis stranded on Mount Sinjar; 

Whereas, on August 7, 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry, 

stated that ISIS’ ‘‘campaign of terror against the innocent, including Yezedi and Christian minorities, and its 


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grotesque and targeted acts of violence bear all the warning signs and hallmarks of genocide’’; 

Whereas, on March 27, 2015, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported 

that its mission to Iraq had ‘‘gathered reliable information about acts of violence perpetrated against civilians 

because of their affiliation or perceived affiliation to an 

ethnic or religious group,’’ that the ‘‘[e]thnic and religious groups targeted by ISIL include Yezidis, Christians, Turkmen, Sabea-Mandeans, Kaka’e, Kurds and 

Shia,’’ and stated, ‘‘It is reasonable to conclude, in the 

light of the information gathered overall, that some of 

those incidents may constitute genocide. Other incidents 

may amount to crimes against humanity or war crimes.’’; 

Whereas the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has ‘‘called on the U.S. government to designate the Christian, Yazidi, Shi’a, 

Turkmen, and Shabak communities of Iraq and Syria as 

victims of genocide by ISIL’’ and USCIRF Chairman 

Robert P. George has observed that ‘‘ISIL’s intent to destroy religious groups that do not subscribe to its extremist ideology in the areas of Iraq and Syria that it controls, or seeks to control, is evident in, not only its barbarous acts, but also its own propaganda’’; and 

Whereas members of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, in their Appeal to Congress of September 

9, 2015, stated, ‘‘ISIS’s mass murders of Chaldean, Assyrian, Melkite Greek, and Coptic Christians, Yazidis, 

Shi’a Muslims, Sunni Kurds and other religious groups 

meet even the strictest definition of genocide.’’: Now, 

therefore, be it 


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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 


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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 


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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 


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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 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 


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1 (1) finds that ISIS, its affiliated organizations, 

2 and supporters are parts of an expanding, worldwide 

3 criminal network, the members of which have 

4 pledged allegiance to its leaders, support its actions, 

5 act in concert with them, claim credit for targeted 

6 killings, and are ‘‘fully aware that [their] participa7 tion’’ and support will ‘‘assist [in] the commission’’ 

8 of its crimes; 

9 (2) finds that ISIS and its affiliated organiza10 tions maintain sophisticated publishing and social 

11 media networks that seek to attract others to join 

12 their efforts and seek to incite the murder of Chris13 tians, Shia and Sunni Muslims, Jews, and any reli14 gious believers who refuse to convert to their 

15 Wahhabi-Salafist jihadist ideology; 

16 (3) declares that ISIS and its leaders should be 

17 charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and 

18 war crimes; 

19 (4) calls upon on the Attorney General to inves20 tigate and prosecute any United States citizens or 

21 residents alleged to be perpetrators of or complicit 

22 in these crimes and to report back to Congress re23 garding what steps are being taken to investigate 

24 and prosecute those involved; 


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1 (5) calls upon the Secretary of the Treasury to 

2 investigate and sanction any person, organization, 

3 business, or financial institution alleged to be per4 petrators of or complicit in these crimes, and to re5 port back to Congress regarding what additional au6 thority, if any, is needed to disrupt ISIS financial 

7 support networks; 

8 (6) calls upon the President to authorize the 

9 Secretary of State, the Under Secretary of State for 

10 Democracy and Global Affairs, and the Ambassador11 at-Large for War Crimes Issues to cooperate in the 

12 collection of forensic evidence of crimes against hu13 manity, genocide, war crimes, slavery, or other viola14 tions of international humanitarian law; 

15 (7) calls on the President, the Secretary of 

16 State, and the United States Permanent Representa17 tive to the United Nations, working through the 

18 United Nations Security Council and its member 

19 states as appropriate, to accelerate the implementa20 tion of an immediate, coordinated, and sustained re21 sponse to provide humanitarian assistance, protect 

22 civilians, build resilience, and help reestablish liveli23 hoods for displaced and persecuted persons in their 

24 communities of origin; 


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1 (8) calls upon the contracting parties to the 

2 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and 

3 Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, signed at 

4 Paris December 9, 1948, and other international 

5 agreements forbidding war crimes and crimes 

6 against humanity, to join with the United States in 

7 an effort to investigate, arrest, and prosecute indi8 vidual and organizational perpetrators responsible 

9 for these crimes; 

10 (9) calls upon the United Nations Secretary11 General to urge all United Nations member states to 

12 cooperate in an international effort to investigate, 

13 try, and prosecute all cases in which prosecutors can 

14 prove that the accused have committed crimes 

15 against humanity, war crimes, and genocide; 

16 (10) makes an urgent appeal to the Cooperation 

17 Council for the Arab States of the Gulf to collabo18 rate on the establishment and operation of domestic, 

19 regional, and hybrid international tribunals with ju20 risdiction to punish the individuals and organiza21 tions responsible for or complicit in actions that con22 stitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and 

23 genocide; and 

24 (11) commends the Governments of the 

25 Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, 


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1 and every other country sheltering and protecting in2 dividuals fleeing the violence of ISIS. 

3 That it is the sense of the Senate that— 

4 (1) the atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic 

5 State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against Chris6 tians, Yezidis, Shi’a, and other religious and ethnic 

7 minorities in Iraq and Syria constitute war crimes, 

8 crimes against humanity, and genocide; 

9 (2) all governments, and international organiza10 tions should call ISIL atrocities by their rightful 

11 names: war crimes, crimes against humanity, and 

12 genocide; 

13 (3) the member states of the United Nations 

14 should coordinate urgently on measures to prevent 

15 further war crimes, crimes against humanity, and 

16 genocide by ISIL in Iraq and Syria, and to punish 

17 those responsible for these ongoing crimes, including 

18 by the collection and preservation of evidence and, if 

19 necessary, the establishment and operation of appro20 priate tribunals; 

21 (4) the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Leba22 nese Republic, the Republic of Turkey, and the 

23 Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq are to be 

24 commended for, and supported in, their efforts to shel25 ter and protect those fleeing the violence of ISIL and 


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1 other combatants until they can safely return to their 

2 homes in Iraq and Syria; and 

3 (5) the protracted Syrian civil war and the in4 discriminate violence of the Assad regime have con5 tributed to the growth of ISIL and will continue to 

6 do so as long as this conflict continues. 

Amend the title so as to read: ‘‘A 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.’’. 


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Calendar No. 447 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 340 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of Congress that the so-called 

and disrupt its support networks. able means, including sanctions, to destroy ISIS to punish these crimes, and to use every reasoninternational criminal tribunal with jurisdiction for ISIS’ targets, to support the creation of an the United Nations to provide physical protection President to work with foreign governments and humanity, and war crimes, and calling upon the Da’esh) is committing genocide, crimes against Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS or 

APRIL 28, 2016 

Reported with an amendment and an amendment to the 

preamble and an amendment to the title 


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