II 

Calendar No. 117 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 756 

To require a report on accountability for war crimes and crimes against 

humanity in Syria. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 17, 2015 

Mr. CARDIN (for himself, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. PETERS, Mrs. 

SHAHEEN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, and Mr. COONS) introduced the following 

bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

JUNE 11, 2015 

Reported by Mr. CORKER, without amendment 

A BILL 

To require a report on accountability for war crimes and 

crimes against humanity in Syria. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Syrian War Crimes 

5 Accountability Act of 2015’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress makes the following findings: 

3 (1) March 2015 marks the fourth year of the 

4 ongoing conflict in Syria. 

5 (2) On December 17, 2014, the United Nations 

6 Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 

7 2191 ‘‘expressing outrage at the unacceptable and 

8 escalating level of violence and the killing of more 

9 than 191,000 people, including well over 10,000 chil10 dren’’ and approximately 1,000,000 injured in Syria. 

11 (3) More than half of Syria’s population is dis12 placed as of March 2015, with more than 7,600,000 

13 internally displaced and more than 3,700,000 refu14 gees in neighboring countries. 

15 (4) On February 19, 2015, United Nations Sec16 retary-General Ban Ki-moon reported to the Secu17 rity Council that ‘‘parties to the conflict are failing 

18 to live up to their international legal obligations to 

19 protect civilians’’ and called for action to ensure the 

20 unfettered delivery of humanitarian relief, an end to 

21 the use of denial of services as a weapon of war, and 

22 a response to ‘‘the relentless and indiscriminate at23 tacks on civilians, including through the use of bar24 rel bombs’’. 

25 (5) On February 27, 2014, the Department of 

26 State issued its 2013 Human Rights Report on 


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1 Syria, which described President Bashar al Assad’s 

2 use of ‘‘indiscriminate and deadly force’’ in the con3 flict, including the August 21, 2013, use of ‘‘sarin 

4 gas and artillery to target East Ghouta and 

5 Moadamiya al-Sham, suburbs of Damascus, which 

6 killed over 1,000 people’’. 

7 (6) The 2014 United States Commission on 

8 International Religious Freedom Annual Report 

9 states that in Syria ‘‘terrorist organizations espouse 

10 violence and the creation of an Islamic state with no 

11 space for religious diversity and have carried out re12 ligiously-motivated attacks and massacres against 

13 Alawite, Shi’a and Christian civilians.’’ 

14 (7) On February 4, 2015, the Executive Coun15 cil of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chem16 ical Weapons (OPCW) adopted a decision expressing 

17 serious concern about the findings ‘‘with a high de18 gree of confidence’’ of an OPCW fact-finding mis19 sion that chlorine had been used as a weapon in 

20 some areas of Syria in 2014 and calling for those in21 dividuals responsible to be held accountable. 

22 (8) The United Nations Independent Inter23 national Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab 

24 Republic reports that pro-government forces have 

25 conducted attacks on Syrian civilian populations, 


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1 and have utilized murder, torture, assault, and rape 

2 as war tactics. Anti-government groups have also 

3 committed murder and torture, engaged in hostage4 taking, attacked protected objects, and shelled civil5 ian neighborhoods. The Commission’s February 

6 2015 report states that Syria’s civil war ‘‘has been 

7 characterized by massive, recurrent violations of 

8 human rights and international humanitarian law 

9 that demand urgent international and national ac10 tion’’. 

11 (9) On March 12, 2015, Physicians for Human 

12 Rights (PHR) reported that since 2011, at least 610 

13 medical personnel have been killed and there have 

14 been 233 deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on 183 

15 medical facilities in Syria. The Physicians for 

16 Human Rights report cited evidence that the Gov17 ernment of Syria committed 88 percent of the re18 corded hospital attacks and 97 percent of medical 

19 personnel killings, and ‘‘has targeted health care and 

20 increasingly used it as a weapon of war to destroy 

21 its opponents by preventing care, killing thousands 

22 of civilians along the way’’. 

23 (10) Internationally accepted rules of war re24 quire actors to distinguish between civilians and 

25 combatants and that all parties are obligated to reVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:34 Jun 11, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S756.RS S756

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1 spect and protect the wounded and sick and to take 

2 care all reasonable measures to provide safe and 

3 prompt access for the wounded and sick to medical 

4 care. 

5 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

6 Congress— 

7 (1) strongly condemns the ongoing violence, use 

8 of chemical weapons, targeting of civilian popu9 lations with barrel, incendiary, and cluster bombs 

10 and SCUD missiles, and systematic gross human 

11 rights violations carried out by Government of Syria 

12 and pro-government forces under the direction of 

13 President Bashar al-Assad, as well as all abuses 

14 committed by violent extremist groups and other 

15 combatants involved in the civil war in Syria; 

16 (2) expresses its support for the people of Syria 

17 seeking democratic change; 

18 (3) urges all parties to the conflict to imme19 diately halt indiscriminate attacks on civilians, allow 

20 for the delivery of humanitarian and medical assist21 ance, and end sieges of civilian populations; 

22 (4) calls on the President to support efforts in 

23 Syria and on the part of the international commu24 nity to ensure accountability for war crimes and 


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1 crimes against humanity committed during the con2 flict; and 

3 (5) supports the requirement in United Nations 

4 Security Council Resolutions 2191, 2165 and 2139 

5 for regular reporting by the Secretary-General on 

6 implementation on the resolutions, including of para7 graph 2 of resolution 2139, which demands that all 

8 parties desist from violations of international hu9 manitarian law and violations and abuses of human 

10 rights and calls on the Security Council to establish 

11 a committee to investigate past and ongoing gross 

12 violations of human rights and war crimes in the 

13 Syrian conflict. 

14 SEC. 4. REPORT ON ACCOUNTABILITY FOR WAR CRIMES 

15 AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN SYRIA. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 

17 date of the enactment of this Act, and again not later than 

18 180 days after the cessation of violence in Syria, the Sec19 retary of State shall submit to the appropriate congres20 sional committees a report on war crimes and crimes 

21 against humanity in Syria. 

22 (b) ELEMENTS.—The report required under sub23 section (a) shall include the following elements: 

24 (1) A description of violations of internationally 

25 recognized human rights, war crimes, and crimes 


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1 against humanity perpetrated during the civil war in 

2 Syria, including— 

3 (A) an account of incidents that may con4 stitute war crimes and crimes against humanity 

5 committed by the regime of President Bashar 

6 al-Assad and all forces fighting on its behalf; 

7 (B) an account of incidents that may con8 stitute war crimes and crimes against humanity 

9 committed by violent extremist groups, anti10 government forces, and any other combatants in 

11 the conflict; 

12 (C) a description of any incidents that may 

13 violate the principle of medical neutrality and, 

14 when possible, an identification of the individual 

15 or individuals who engaged in or organized such 

16 violations; and 

17 (D) where possible, a description of the 

18 conventional and unconventional weapons used 

19 for such crimes and, the origins of the weapons. 

20 (2) A description of efforts by the Department 

21 of State and the United States Agency for Inter22 national Development to ensure accountability for 

23 violations of internationally recognized human 

24 rights, international humanitarian law, and crimes 

25 against humanity perpetrated against the people of 


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1 Syria by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, 

2 violent extremist groups, and other combatants in3 volved in the conflict, including— 

4 (A) a description of initiatives that the 

5 United States Government has undertaken to 

6 train investigators in Syria on how to docu7 ment, investigate, and develop findings of war 

8 crimes, including the number of United States 

9 Government or contract personnel currently 

10 designated to work full-time on these issues and 

11 an identification of the authorities and appro12 priations being used to support training efforts; 

13 (B) a description and assessment of Syrian 

14 and international efforts to ensure account15 ability for crimes committed during the Syrian 

16 conflict, including efforts to promote a transi17 tional justice process that would include crimi18 nal accountability and the establishment of an 

19 ad hoc tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of 

20 war crimes committed during the civil war in 

21 Syria; and 

22 (C) an assessment of the influence of ac23 countability measures on efforts to reach a ne24 gotiated settlement to the conflict during the 

25 reporting period. 


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1 (c) FORM.—The report required under subsection (a) 

2 may be in unclassified or classified form, but shall include 

3 a publicly available annex. 

4 (d) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE DE5 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres6 sional committees’’ means— 

7 (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 

8 Senate; and 

9 (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 

10 House of Representatives. 


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Calendar No. 117 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 756 

A BILL 

crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria. 

To require a report on accountability for war 

JUNE 11, 2015 

Reported without amendment 


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