IV 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 152 
Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States and the international 
community should support the Republic of Iraq and its people to recog-
nize a province in the Nineveh Plain region, consistent with lawful 
expressions of self-determination by its indigenous peoples. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 9, 2016 
Mr. FORTENBERRY (for himself, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. 
VARGAS, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. ADERHOLT, 
Mr. WITTMAN, Mr. DONOVAN, Mr. HARRIS, Mrs. COMSTOCK, and Mr. 
PITTS) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States 
and the international community should support the Re-
public of Iraq and its people to recognize a province 
in the Nineveh Plain region, consistent with lawful ex-
pressions of self-determination by its indigenous peoples. 
Whereas the Nineveh Plain and the wider region have been 
the ancestral homeland of Assyrian Chaldean Syriac 
Christians, Yezidis, Sunni and Shia Arabs, Kurds, 
Shabak, Turkmen, Kaka’i, Sabaean-Mandeans, and oth-
ers where they lived for centuries in a spirit of general 
pluralism, stability, and communal cooperation despite 
periods of external violence and persecution, until the Is-
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lamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) overran and 
occupied much of the region in 2014; 
Whereas Christians in Iraq once numbered over 1.5 million 
in 2003 and have dwindled to less than 350,000 today; 
Whereas the Secretary of State recognized on March 17, 
2016, that ISIL was ‘‘responsible for genocide against 
groups in the areas under its control, including Yezidis, 
Christians, and Shia Muslims,’’ and ‘‘responsible for 
crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at 
these same groups and in some cases also against Sunni 
Muslims, Kurds, and other minorities’’; 
Whereas Congress and the Secretary of State have been 
joined by the European Parliament, the Council of Eu-
rope, the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Aus-
tralian parliament, and other nations and institutions in 
recognizing that the atrocities perpetrated by ISIL 
against religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq include 
war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide; 
Whereas Congress and the Secretary of State found that 
these atrocities were undertaken with the specific intent 
to bring about the eradication and displacement of Assyr-
ian Chaldean Syriac Christians, Yezidis, and other com-
munities and the destruction of their cultural heritage in 
violation of the United Nations Convention on the Pre-
vention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which 
bind the United States to act to protect the victims of 
genocide; 
Whereas it is consistent with the commitments of the Repub-
lic of Iraq, the Kurdish Regional Government, the United 
States, and the international community to guarantee the 
restoration of fundamental human rights, including prop-
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•HCON 152 IH 
erty rights, to genocide victims, and to see that ethnic 
and religious pluralism survives in Iraq, a nation beset by 
sectarian conflict; 
Whereas Iraq’s Council of Ministers on January 21, 2014, 
‘‘agreed, in principle, to turn the districts of Tuz 
Khurmato, Fallujah and the Nineveh Plains into prov-
inces,’’; 
Whereas 
heroic 
Sunni 
Muslims, 
including 
Professor 
Mahmoud Al Asali, a professor of law at the University 
of Mosul, who condemned ISIL and was murdered by 
ISIL on July 20, 2014, have resisted ISIL’s crimes 
against Christians and others; 
Whereas the Secretary of State, in his March 17, 2016, 
statement noted that, as the region is liberated from 
ISIL, its peoples ‘‘will need help not only to repair infra-
structure, but also to ensure that minorities can return 
in safety, that they are integrated into local security 
forces, and that they receive equal protection under the 
law’’; 
Whereas the United Nations’ Universal Declaration on 
Human Rights holds that, ‘‘Everyone has the right to 
freedom of movement and residence within the borders of 
each state,’’ and that ‘‘[e]veryone has the right to leave 
any country, including his own, and to return to his 
country’’; 
Whereas United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60–1 
(2005) states ‘‘each individual state has the responsibility 
to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, eth-
nic cleansing, and crimes against humanity’’; 
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Whereas Article 2 of the Iraqi Constitution ‘‘guarantees the 
full religious rights of all individuals to freedom of reli-
gious belief and practice’’; 
Whereas Article 125 of the Iraqi Constitution guarantees 
‘‘the administrative, political, cultural, and educational 
rights of the various nationalities, such as Turkomen, 
Chaldeans, Assyrians, and all other constituents’’; 
Whereas the Counter ISIL Coalition continues to roll back 
ISIL in northern Iraq in coordination with Iraqi Security 
Forces, the Kurdish Regional Government’s Peshmerga 
forces, and indigenous local security forces with a na-
tional security mission; 
Whereas the repatriation, restoration, and economic revital-
ization of the Nineveh Plain’s indigenous communities to 
their ancestral homes in a manner that provides an op-
portunity for diverse ethnic and religious communities to 
flourish advances Iraq’s stability and the security inter-
ests of the international community; and 
Whereas local self-determination and security protection for 
the communities of the Nineveh Plain within the frame-
work of the federal Republic of Iraq would restore and 
preserve the fundamental human rights, including prop-
erty rights, of the indigenous peoples of that region: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That— 
(1) the return of the displaced indigenous peo-
ples of the Nineveh Plain, many of whom are dis-
placed within Iraq, to their ancestral homeland 
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should be a policy priority of United States and the 
international community; 
(2) upon the return of the indigenous peoples of 
the Nineveh Plain to their homeland, with the sup-
port of the governments of the Republic of Iraq and 
the Kurdish Regional Government, these peoples 
should have their fundamental human rights fully 
restored, including property rights, superseding any 
claims of property rights by others; 
(3) the indigenous communities of Iraq’s 
Nineveh Plain region—Assyrian Chaldean Syriac 
Christians, Yezidis, and others—have a right to se-
curity and self-determination within the federal 
structure of the Republic of Iraq; 
(4) the United States, the Counter ISIL Coali-
tion, the international community, the Government 
of Iraq, and the Kurdish Regional Government 
should remain committed to liberation, economic re-
vitalization, and prosperity of the Nineveh Plain re-
gion; 
(5) the United States, the international commu-
nity, international observers, the Government of 
Iraq, and the Kurdish Regional Government should 
be committed to the territorial integrity and security 
of the Nineveh Plain; 
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(6) the United States and the international 
community should make the peaceful resolution of 
questions pertaining to the Republic of Iraq’s dis-
puted internal boundaries a priority; 
(7) the United States, the Counter ISIL Coali-
tion, the international community, and international 
observers, should be committed to working with the 
national and regional governments of the Republic of 
Iraq toward a sustainable security settlement in the 
Nineveh Plain; 
(8) the United States and the international 
community should work with the national and re-
gional governments of the Republic of Iraq to over-
see the peaceful reintegration of the indigenous peo-
ples, now internally displaced persons and refugees, 
of the Nineveh Plain to their ancestral homeland; 
(9) the United States and the international 
community should work with the national and re-
gional governments of the Republic of Iraq, includ-
ing the Kurdish Regional Government, to establish 
the Nineveh Plain as an undisputed territory, politi-
cally represented by the indigenous peoples and com-
munities of the region; and 
(10) the United States and the international 
community should be committed to supporting the 
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Government of Iraq in implementing the decision to 
create a Nineveh Plain Province in accordance with 
the Government of Iraq Cabinet decision of January 
21, 2014, and support the new provincial adminis-
tration to attain its full potential, consistent with 
lawful expressions of self-determination by its indig-
enous peoples. 
Æ 
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