IC 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 756 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 15, 2015 

Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

AN ACT 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

3 Accountability Act of 2015’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Congress makes the following findings: 

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

7 ongoing conflict in Syria. 

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

9 Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 

10 2191 ‘‘expressing outrage at the unacceptable and 

11 escalating level of violence and the killing of more 

12 than 191,000 people, including well over 10,000 chil13 dren’’ and approximately 1,000,000 injured in Syria. 

14 (3) More than half of Syria’s population is dis15 placed as of March 2015, with more than 7,600,000 

16 internally displaced and more than 3,700,000 refu17 gees in neighboring countries. 

18 (4) On February 19, 2015, United Nations Sec19 retary-General Ban Ki-moon reported to the Secu20 rity Council that ‘‘parties to the conflict are failing 

21 to live up to their international legal obligations to 

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

23 unfettered delivery of humanitarian relief, an end to 

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

25 a response to ‘‘the relentless and indiscriminate atVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:56 Jul 15, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S756.RFH S756

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1 tacks on civilians, including through the use of bar2 rel bombs’’. 

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

4 State issued its 2013 Human Rights Report on 

5 Syria, which described President Bashar al Assad’s 

6 use of ‘‘indiscriminate and deadly force’’ in the con7 flict, including the August 21, 2013, use of ‘‘sarin 

8 gas and artillery to target East Ghouta and 

9 Moadamiya al-Sham, suburbs of Damascus, which 

10 killed over 1,000 people’’. 

11 (6) The 2014 United States Commission on 

12 International Religious Freedom Annual Report 

13 states that in Syria ‘‘terrorist organizations espouse 

14 violence and the creation of an Islamic state with no 

15 space for religious diversity and have carried out re16 ligiously-motivated attacks and massacres against 

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

18 (7) On February 4, 2015, the Executive Coun19 cil of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chem20 ical Weapons (OPCW) adopted a decision expressing 

21 serious concern about the findings ‘‘with a high de22 gree of confidence’’ of an OPCW fact-finding mis23 sion that chlorine had been used as a weapon in 

24 some areas of Syria in 2014 and calling for those in25 dividuals responsible to be held accountable. 


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1 (8) The United Nations Independent Inter2 national Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab 

3 Republic reports that pro-government forces have 

4 conducted attacks on Syrian civilian populations, 

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

6 as war tactics. Anti-government groups have also 

7 committed murder and torture, engaged in hostage8 taking, attacked protected objects, and shelled civil9 ian neighborhoods. The Commission’s February 

10 2015 report states that Syria’s civil war ‘‘has been 

11 characterized by massive, recurrent violations of 

12 human rights and international humanitarian law 

13 that demand urgent international and national ac14 tion’’. 

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

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

17 medical personnel have been killed and there have 

18 been 233 deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on 183 

19 medical facilities in Syria. The Physicians for 

20 Human Rights report cited evidence that the Gov21 ernment of Syria committed 88 percent of the re22 corded hospital attacks and 97 percent of medical 

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

24 increasingly used it as a weapon of war to destroy 


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1 its opponents by preventing care, killing thousands 

2 of civilians along the way’’. 

3 (10) Internationally accepted rules of war re4 quire actors to distinguish between civilians and 

5 combatants and that all parties are obligated to re6 spect and protect the wounded and sick and to take 

7 care all reasonable measures to provide safe and 

8 prompt access for the wounded and sick to medical 

9 care. 

10 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

11 Congress— 

12 (1) strongly condemns the ongoing violence, use 

13 of chemical weapons, targeting of civilian popu14 lations with barrel, incendiary, and cluster bombs 

15 and SCUD missiles, and systematic gross human 

16 rights violations carried out by Government of Syria 

17 and pro-government forces under the direction of 

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

19 committed by violent extremist groups and other 

20 combatants involved in the civil war in Syria; 

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

22 seeking democratic change; 

23 (3) urges all parties to the conflict to imme24 diately halt indiscriminate attacks on civilians, allow 


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1 for the delivery of humanitarian and medical assist2 ance, and end sieges of civilian populations; 

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

4 Syria and on the part of the international commu5 nity to ensure accountability for war crimes and 

6 crimes against humanity committed during the con7 flict; and 

8 (5) supports the requirement in United Nations 

9 Security Council Resolutions 2191, 2165 and 2139 

10 for regular reporting by the Secretary-General on 

11 implementation on the resolutions, including of para12 graph 2 of resolution 2139, which demands that all 

13 parties desist from violations of international hu14 manitarian law and violations and abuses of human 

15 rights and calls on the Security Council to establish 

16 a committee to investigate past and ongoing gross 

17 violations of human rights and war crimes in the 

18 Syrian conflict. 

19 SEC. 4. REPORT ON ACCOUNTABILITY FOR WAR CRIMES 

20 AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN SYRIA. 

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

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

23 180 days after the cessation of violence in Syria, the Sec24 retary of State shall submit to the appropriate congresVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:56 Jul 15, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S756.RFH S756

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1 sional committees a report on war crimes and crimes 

2 against humanity in Syria. 

3 (b) ELEMENTS.—The report required under sub4 section (a) shall include the following elements: 

5 (1) A description of violations of internationally 

6 recognized human rights, war crimes, and crimes 

7 against humanity perpetrated during the civil war in 

8 Syria, including— 

9 (A) an account of incidents that may con10 stitute war crimes and crimes against humanity 

11 committed by the regime of President Bashar 

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

13 (B) an account of incidents that may con14 stitute war crimes and crimes against humanity 

15 committed by violent extremist groups, anti16 government forces, and any other combatants in 

17 the conflict; 

18 (C) a description of any incidents that may 

19 violate the principle of medical neutrality and, 

20 when possible, an identification of the individual 

21 or individuals who engaged in or organized such 

22 violations; and 

23 (D) where possible, a description of the 

24 conventional and unconventional weapons used 

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


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1 (2) A description of efforts by the Department 

2 of State and the United States Agency for Inter3 national Development to ensure accountability for 

4 violations of internationally recognized human 

5 rights, international humanitarian law, and crimes 

6 against humanity perpetrated against the people of 

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

8 violent extremist groups, and other combatants in9 volved in the conflict, including— 

10 (A) a description of initiatives that the 

11 United States Government has undertaken to 

12 train investigators in Syria on how to docu13 ment, investigate, and develop findings of war 

14 crimes, including the number of United States 

15 Government or contract personnel currently 

16 designated to work full-time on these issues and 

17 an identification of the authorities and appro18 priations being used to support training efforts; 

19 (B) a description and assessment of Syrian 

20 and international efforts to ensure account21 ability for crimes committed during the Syrian 

22 conflict, including efforts to promote a transi23 tional justice process that would include crimi24 nal accountability and the establishment of an 

25 ad hoc tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of 


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1 war crimes committed during the civil war in 

2 Syria; and 

3 (C) an assessment of the influence of ac4 countability measures on efforts to reach a ne5 gotiated settlement to the conflict during the 

6 reporting period. 

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

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

9 a publicly available annex. 

10 (d) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE DE11 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres12 sional committees’’ means— 

13 (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 

14 Senate; and 

15 (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 

16 House of Representatives. 

Passed the Senate July 14, 2015. 

Attest: JULIE E. ADAMS, 

Secretary. 


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