108TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. CON. RES. 467
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Declaring genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
108TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. CON. RES. 467
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas Article 1 of the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (signed at Paris on
December 9, 1948) 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 to punish’’;
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Whereas Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide declares that ‘‘in
the present Convention, genocide means any of the fol-
lowing 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; and (e) forcibly transfer-
ring children of the group to another group’’;
Whereas Article 3 of the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide affirms that ‘‘[the]
following acts shall be punishable: (a) genocide; (b) con-
spiracy to commit genocide; (c) direct and public incite-
ment to commit genocide; (d) attempt to committed geno-
cide; and (e) complicit in genocide’’;
Whereas in Darfur, Sudan, an estimated 30,000 innocent ci-
vilians have been brutally murdered, more than 130,000
people have been forced from their homes and have fled
to neighboring Chad, and more than 1,000,000 people
have been internally displaced; and
Whereas in March 2004 the United Nations Resident Hu-
manitarian Coordinator stated: ‘‘[T]he war in Darfur
started off in a small way last year but it has progres-
sively gotten worse. A predominant feature of this is that
the brunt is being borne by civilians. This includes vul-
nerable women and children . . . The violence in Darfur
appears to be particularly directed at a specific group
based on their ethnic identity and appears to be
systemized.’’: Now, therefore, be it
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Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That Congress—
(1) declares that the atrocities unfolding in
Darfur, Sudan, are genocide;
(2) reminds the Contracting Parties to the Con-
vention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide (signed at Paris on December 9,
1948), particularly the Government of Sudan, of
their legal obligations under the Convention;
(3) declares that the Government of Sudan, as
a Contracting Party, has violated the Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide;
(4) deplores the failure of the United Nations
Human Rights Commission to take appropriate ac-
tion with respect to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, par-
ticularly the failure by the Commission to support
United States–sponsored efforts to strongly condemn
gross human rights violations committed in Darfur,
and calls upon the United Nations and the United
Nations Secretary General to assert leadership by
calling the atrocities being committed in Darfur by
their rightful name: ‘‘genocide’’;
(5) calls on the member states of the United
Nations, particularly member states from the Afri-
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can Union, the Arab League, and the Organization
of the Islamic Conference, to undertake measures to
prevent the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, from esca-
lating further, including the imposition of targeted
sanctions against those responsible for the atrocities;
(6) urges the Administration to call the atroc-
ities being committed in Darfur, Sudan, by their
rightful name: ‘‘genocide’’;
(7) commends the Administration’s leadership
in seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict in
Darfur, Sudan, and in addressing the ensuing hu-
manitarian crisis, including the visit of Secretary of
State Colin Powell to Darfur in June 2004 to en-
gage directly in efforts to end the genocide, and the
provision of nearly $140,000,000 to date in bilateral
humanitarian assistance through the United States
Agency for International Development;
(8) commends the President for appointing
former Senator John Danforth as Envoy for Peace
in Sudan on September 6, 2001, and further com-
mends the appointment of Senator Danforth as
United States Ambassador to the United Nations;
(9) calls on the Administration to continue to
lead an international effort to stop genocide in
Darfur, Sudan;