IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1240 
Expressing condemnation for police brutality wherever in the world it occurs. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 24, 2020 
Ms. OMAR submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Foreign Af-
fairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each 
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of 
the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing condemnation for police brutality wherever in the 
world it occurs. 
Whereas, in 2020, there have been significant peaceful as-
semblies protesting against police brutality throughout 
the world, including in the United States; 
Whereas police brutality may include human rights violations 
such as the use of excessive force, extrajudicial killings, 
arbitrary detention, torture, and the use of lethal rounds 
and the unnecessary use of ‘‘less-lethal’’ crowd control 
weapons by law enforcement, in response to peaceful as-
semblies; 
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•HRES 1240 IH 
Whereas police brutality may occur prior to an arrest, during 
crowd control operations, during an arrest, and while an 
individual is in custody; 
Whereas the Small Arms Survey identified that between 
2007–2012, 19,000 people worldwide were killed by po-
lice annually; 
Whereas a 2017 United Nations Development Program re-
port found that more than 70 percent of individuals who 
had joined violent extremist groups across Africa self-re-
ported that ‘‘government action’’, including police bru-
tality, was the determining factor in their decision to join 
such groups; 
Whereas the United States is the largest arms exporter in the 
world, including as the top provider to 13 out of 19 coun-
tries in the Middle East; 
Whereas the United States is the largest developer and ex-
porter of ‘‘less-lethal’’ weapons, including tear gas, in the 
world; 
Whereas the United States, especially under the auspices of 
the wars on drugs and global terrorism, has in recent 
decades dramatically increased its influence on the tac-
tics, equipment, and purpose of policing around the 
world; 
Whereas during that same period and under those same aus-
pices, domestic police forces at the State, local, and Fed-
eral level have become increasingly militarized in both 
equipment and tactics; 
Whereas several United States embassies in Africa released 
statements in the aftermath of the May 25, 2020, police 
killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, explicitly 
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•HRES 1240 IH 
recognizing the foreign policy dimension of domestic po-
lice violence; 
Whereas many of those statements included reminders of the 
importance of an impartial judicial system and account-
ability for state security forces who commit human rights 
violations; 
Whereas on a global scale, police brutality occurs on every 
continent, in both democracies and dictatorships, and in 
countries that are both partners and adversaries of the 
United States; 
Whereas on a global scale, police brutality disproportionately 
harms already vulnerable people, including racial, ethnic, 
and religious minorities, women, migrants, people with 
disabilities, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community; 
and 
Whereas on a global scale, impunity for both individual police 
officers and departments or units who commit police bru-
tality is an endemic problem: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns police brutality wherever in the 
world it occurs; 
(2) stands with peaceful protesters around the 
world in their calls for justice and accountability for 
police brutality; 
(3) recognizes that police brutality dispropor-
tionately targets already vulnerable populations, in-
cluding racial, ethnic, religious minorities, women, 
migrants, and the LGBTQIA+ community; 
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•HRES 1240 IH 
(4) recognizes that impunity for police brutality 
undermines the rule of law, erodes public confidence 
in state institutions and degrades social cohesion; 
(5) calls on the United States Government to— 
(A) take immediate and significant steps to 
eliminate police brutality and impunity for po-
lice brutality in the United States; 
(B) prohibit the sales of arms, ammuni-
tion, and ‘‘less-lethal’’ policing equipment to 
countries with demonstrated patterns of human 
rights violations by security forces or impunity 
for human rights violations by security forces; 
(C) prohibit other forms of security assist-
ance, including police training, to countries with 
demonstrated patterns of human rights viola-
tions by security forces or impunity for human 
rights violations by security forces; 
(D) use its voice, vote, and influence in 
international institutions to work toward the 
elimination of police brutality and ending impu-
nity for police brutality around the world; 
(E) end the use of militarized equipment 
and tactics in policing both at home and 
abroad; and 
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•HRES 1240 IH 
(F) reallocate funding in both the United 
States and abroad to peacebuilding, job train-
ing, counseling and mental health program-
ming, and violence-preventing programming; 
and 
(6) calls on businesses based in the United 
States that sell lethal and less-lethal policing equip-
ment to adopt strict protocols prohibiting the sale of 
such articles to countries with demonstrated pat-
terns of police brutality or impunity for police bru-
tality. 
Æ 
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