III 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 537 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States should recognize 

the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as ‘‘the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda’’. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 31, 2024 

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

Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States 

should recognize the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as ‘‘the 

genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda’’. 

Whereas, in 2018, the United Nations General Assembly 

amended the title of the annual observance of the genocide in Rwanda on April 7 to be the ‘‘International Day 

of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in 

Rwanda’’; 

Whereas United States officials have noted publicly that the 

genocide in Rwanda was ‘‘intended to destroy Tutsi’’; 

Whereas, on April 7, 2023, Secretary of State Blinken stated, 

‘‘The U.S. stands with Rwanda . . . in remembering the 

Tutsi victims of genocide. We also mourn the others who 

were murdered for their opposition to a genocidal regime.’’; 


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•SRES 537 IS 

Whereas the United States Integrated Country Strategy for 

Rwanda (approved March 14, 2022) refers to the ‘‘1994 

genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group’’; 

Whereas Rwandan officials, in appropriately opposing genocide denial or revisionism, aptly note that any nomenclature that does not specifically use the phrase ‘‘genocide against the Tutsi’’ is ‘‘ambiguous’’ and conducive to 

genocide denial or revisionism; 

Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

notes in its public educational materials on the ‘‘genocide 

in Rwanda’’ that the victims were ‘‘predominantly Tutsi’’ 

and that the goal of Hutu extremist leaders was for 

‘‘Rwandan Tutsis to be exterminated’’; 

Whereas the United States-based nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch, which played a central role 

in documenting the genocide in Rwanda and in supporting international efforts to bring the perpetrators to 

justice, found that the ‘‘Tutsi were being targeted for 

elimination’’; 

Whereas European diplomats refer to the ‘‘genocide against 

the Tutsi’’ in public statements; 

Whereas, starting in 2022, the Government of the United 

Kingdom has used the terminology ‘‘genocide against the 

Tutsi’’; and 

Whereas the United States is the only major country in the 

world to publicly reject the terminology ‘‘genocide against 

the Tutsi’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that— 


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•SRES 537 IS 

1 (1) the United States should recognize the 1994 

2 genocide in Rwanda as ‘‘the genocide against the 

3 Tutsi in Rwanda’’; 

4 (2) the Secretary of State should publicly af5 firm that terminology; and 

6 (3) other types of atrocities occurred alongside 

7 the genocide against the Tutsi, and the history of 

8 the genocide should clearly affirm the other experi9 ences of mass violence against Rwandans during the 

10 same period, including the killings and other violence 

11 experienced by Hutus and the Indigenous Twa com12 munity, perpetrated by Hutu extremist militias. 

Æ 


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