II 

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, and Mr. MENENDEZ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

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’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress makes the following findings: 

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

9 ongoing conflict in Syria. 


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

2 Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 

3 2191 ‘‘expressing outrage at the unacceptable and 

4 escalating level of violence and the killing of more 

5 than 191,000 people, including well over 10,000 chil6 dren’’ and approximately 1,000,000 injured in Syria. 

7 (3) More than half of Syria’s population is dis8 placed as of March 2015, with more than 7,600,000 

9 internally displaced and more than 3,700,000 refu10 gees in neighboring countries. 

11 (4) On February 19, 2015, United Nations Sec12 retary-General Ban Ki-moon reported to the Secu13 rity Council that ‘‘parties to the conflict are failing 

14 to live up to their international legal obligations to 

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

16 unfettered delivery of humanitarian relief, an end to 

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

18 a response to ‘‘the relentless and indiscriminate at19 tacks on civilians, including through the use of bar20 rel bombs’’. 

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

22 State issued its 2013 Human Rights Report on 

23 Syria, which described President Bashar al Assad’s 

24 use of ‘‘indiscriminate and deadly force’’ in the con25 flict, including the August 21, 2013, use of ‘‘sarin 


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1 gas and artillery to target East Ghouta and 

2 Moadamiya al-Sham, suburbs of Damascus, which 

3 killed over 1,000 people’’. 

4 (6) The 2014 United States Commission on 

5 International Religious Freedom Annual Report 

6 states that in Syria ‘‘terrorist organizations espouse 

7 violence and the creation of an Islamic state with no 

8 space for religious diversity and have carried out re9 ligiously-motivated attacks and massacres against 

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

11 (7) On February 4, 2015, the Executive Coun12 cil of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chem13 ical Weapons (OPCW) adopted a decision expressing 

14 serious concern about the findings ‘‘with a high de15 gree of confidence’’ of an OPCW fact-finding mis16 sion that chlorine had been used as a weapon in 

17 some areas of Syria in 2014 and calling for those in18 dividuals responsible to be held accountable. 

19 (8) The United Nations Independent Inter20 national Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab 

21 Republic reports that pro-government forces have 

22 conducted attacks on Syrian civilian populations, 

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

24 as war tactics. Anti-government groups have also 

25 committed murder and torture, engaged in hostageVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:14 Mar 20, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S756.IS S756

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1 taking, attacked protected objects, and shelled civil2 ian neighborhoods. The Commission’s February 

3 2015 report states that Syria’s civil war ‘‘has been 

4 characterized by massive, recurrent violations of 

5 human rights and international humanitarian law 

6 that demand urgent international and national ac7 tion’’. 

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

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

10 medical personnel have been killed and there have 

11 been 233 deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on 183 

12 medical facilities in Syria. The Physicians for 

13 Human Rights report cited evidence that the Gov14 ernment of Syria committed 88 percent of the re15 corded hospital attacks and 97 percent of medical 

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

17 increasingly used it as a weapon of war to destroy 

18 its opponents by preventing care, killing thousands 

19 of civilians along the way’’. 

20 (10) Internationally accepted rules of war re21 quire actors to distinguish between civilians and 

22 combatants and that all parties are obligated to re23 spect and protect the wounded and sick and to take 

24 care all reasonable measures to provide safe and 


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1 prompt access for the wounded and sick to medical 

2 care. 

3 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

4 Congress— 

5 (1) strongly condemns the ongoing violence, use 

6 of chemical weapons, targeting of civilian popu7 lations with barrel, incendiary, and cluster bombs 

8 and SCUD missiles, and systematic gross human 

9 rights violations carried out by Government of Syria 

10 and pro-government forces under the direction of 

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

12 committed by violent extremist groups and other 

13 combatants involved in the civil war in Syria; 

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

15 seeking democratic change; 

16 (3) urges all parties to the conflict to imme17 diately halt indiscriminate attacks on civilians, allow 

18 for the delivery of humanitarian and medical assist19 ance, and end sieges of civilian populations; 

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

21 Syria and on the part of the international commu22 nity to ensure accountability for war crimes and 

23 crimes against humanity committed during the con24 flict; and 


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1 (5) supports the requirement in United Nations 

2 Security Council Resolutions 2191, 2165 and 2139 

3 for regular reporting by the Secretary-General on 

4 implementation on the resolutions, including of para5 graph 2 of resolution 2139, which demands that all 

6 parties desist from violations of international hu7 manitarian law and violations and abuses of human 

8 rights and calls on the Security Council to establish 

9 a committee to investigate past and ongoing gross 

10 violations of human rights and war crimes in the 

11 Syrian conflict. 

12 SEC. 4. REPORT ON ACCOUNTABILITY FOR WAR CRIMES 

13 AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN SYRIA. 

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

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

16 180 days after the cessation of violence in Syria, the Sec17 retary of State shall submit to the appropriate congres18 sional committees a report on war crimes and crimes 

19 against humanity in Syria. 

20 (b) ELEMENTS.—The report required under sub21 section (a) shall include the following elements: 

22 (1) A description of violations of internationally 

23 recognized human rights, war crimes, and crimes 

24 against humanity perpetrated during the civil war in 

25 Syria, including— 


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1 (A) an account of incidents that may con2 stitute war crimes and crimes against humanity 

3 committed by the regime of President Bashar 

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

5 (B) an account of incidents that may con6 stitute war crimes and crimes against humanity 

7 committed by violent extremist groups, anti8 government forces, and any other combatants in 

9 the conflict; 

10 (C) a description of any incidents that may 

11 violate the principle of medical neutrality and, 

12 when possible, an identification of the individual 

13 or individuals who engaged in or organized such 

14 violations; and 

15 (D) where possible, a description of the 

16 conventional and unconventional weapons used 

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

18 (2) A description of efforts by the Department 

19 of State and the United States Agency for Inter20 national Development to ensure accountability for 

21 violations of internationally recognized human 

22 rights, international humanitarian law, and crimes 

23 against humanity perpetrated against the people of 

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


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1 violent extremist groups, and other combatants in2 volved in the conflict, including— 

3 (A) a description of initiatives that the 

4 United States Government has undertaken to 

5 train investigators in Syria on how to docu6 ment, investigate, and develop findings of war 

7 crimes, including the number of United States 

8 Government or contract personnel currently 

9 designated to work full-time on these issues and 

10 an identification of the authorities and appro11 priations being used to support training efforts; 

12 (B) a description and assessment of Syrian 

13 and international efforts to ensure account14 ability for crimes committed during the Syrian 

15 conflict, including efforts to promote a transi16 tional justice process that would include crimi17 nal accountability and the establishment of an 

18 ad hoc tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of 

19 war crimes committed during the civil war in 

20 Syria; and 

21 (C) an assessment of the influence of ac22 countability measures on efforts to reach a ne23 gotiated settlement to the conflict during the 

24 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. 

Æ 


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