Geospatial Support for Atrocity Accountability Act

Bill: 117-hr-7758
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Stefanik, Elise M. [R-NY-21]
Introduced: 2022-05-12
Policy area: International Affairs
Latest action: action_date: 2022-05-12
text: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Summaries:
action_date: 2022-05-12
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><b>Geospatial Support for Atrocity Accountability Act</b></p> <p>This bill requires the Department of State to ensure that information and intelligence related to war crimes and atrocities are shared within the State Department and with certain other entities. For example, the State Department's Atrocity Warning Task Force must provide unclassified commercial geospatial imagery to domestic and international courts prosecuting persons responsible for crimes against humanity, if such imagery may provide evidence of such crimes.</p>

tv_txt: I 117th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 7758 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 12, 2022 Ms. Stefanik (for herself, Ms. Spanberger , Mr. Moulton , Mr. Wittman , Ms. Salazar , Mr. Johnson of Louisiana , Mr. Smith of New Jersey , Mr. Lamborn , and Mr. Wilson of South Carolina ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs A BILL To improve the intelligence received by the Secretary of State to identify, prevent, and respond to atrocities.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Geospatial Support for Atrocity Accountability Act . 2. Provision of intelligence to identify, prevent, and respond to atrocities (a) In general The Secretary of State, acting through the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, shall ensure that the Department of State receives the following information of the United States Government: (1) Intelligence to identify, prevent, and respond to atrocities pursuant to the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 ( Public Law 115–441 ; 132 Stat. 5586). (2) Evidence and information collected, analyzed, or preserved relating to war crimes, other atrocities, forced disappearances, and atrocity crime scenes. (b) Department of State Atrocity Warning Task Force The Secretary of State shall ensure that intelligence, evidence, and information received pursuant to subsection (a) is provided to the Department of State Atrocity Warning Task Force. The Task Force shall provide unclassified commercial geospatial imagery and analysis of such imagery received pursuant to subsection (a) to— (1) appropriate domestic, foreign, and international courts and tribunals prosecuting persons responsible for crimes for which such imagery may provide evidence (including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, including with respect to missing persons and suspected atrocity crime scenes); (2) the International Commission on Missing Persons and relevant civil society organizations (in addition to providing such organizations with other evidence archived by the Task Force); and (3) the public to notify persons of potential atrocities and warn persons who are believed to be preparing to commit atrocities. (c) Definitions In this section: (1) Atrocities The term atrocities has the meaning given that term in section 6 of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 ( Public Law 115–441 ; 132 Stat. 5586). (2) Atrocity crime scene The term atrocity crime scene means one or more locations that are relevant to the investigation of an atrocity, including buildings or locations (including bodies of water) where physical evidence may be collected relating to the perpetrators, victims, and events of the atrocity, such as mass graves and other sites containing deceased individuals.