A resolution recognizing Russian actions in Ukraine as a genocide.

Bill: 118-sres-72
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Risch, James E. [R-ID]
Introduced: 2023-02-16
Policy area: International Affairs
Latest action: action_date: 2023-02-16
text: Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. (text: CR S461)

Summaries:
action_date: 2023-02-16
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p>This resolution condemns those acting on behalf of Russia for committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people. It also calls on the United States, in cooperation with North Atlantic Treaty Organization and European Union allies, to undertake measures to support the Ukrainian government to prevent acts of Russian genocide against the Ukrainian people. It also urges the President to impose sanctions on those responsible for or complicit in such acts of genocide. </p>

tv_txt: III 118th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 72 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES February 16, 2023 Mr. Risch (for himself, Mr. Cardin , Mr. Tillis , Mr. Blumenthal , Mr. Crapo , Mr. Kaine , Mr. Scott of Florida , Ms. Klobuchar , Mrs. Capito , Mr. Manchin , Mr. Barrasso , Mrs. Murray , Mr. Graham , Mrs. Shaheen , Mr. Rubio , and Mr. Young ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations RESOLUTION Recognizing Russian actions in Ukraine as a genocide.

Whereas the Russian Federation’s illegal, premeditated, unprovoked, and brutal war against Ukraine includes extensive, systematic, and flagrant atrocities against the people of Ukraine; Whereas article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (in this preamble referred to as the Genocide Convention ), adopted and opened for signature in 1948 and entered into force in 1951, defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with 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; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group ; Whereas, on October 3, 2018, the Senate unanimously agreed to Senate Resolution 435, 115th Congress, which commemorated the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor and recognize[d] the findings of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine as submitted to Congress on April 22, 1988, including that Joseph Stalin and those around him committed genocide against the Ukrainians in 1932–1933 ; Whereas substantial and significant evidence documents widespread, systematic actions against the Ukrainian people committed by Russian forces under the direction of political leadership of the Russian Federation that meet one or more of the criteria under article II of the Genocide Convention, including— (1) killing members of the Ukrainian people in mass atrocities through deliberate and regularized murders of fleeing civilians and civilians in passing as well as purposeful targeting of homes, schools, hospitals, shelters, and other residential and civilian areas; (2) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the Ukrainian people by launching indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian areas, conducting willful strikes on humanitarian evacuation corridors, and employing widespread and systematic sexual violence against Ukrainian civilians, including women, children, and men; (3) deliberately inflicting upon the Ukrainian people conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part, including displacement due to annihilated villages, towns, and cities left devoid of food, water, shelter, electricity, and other basic necessities, starvation caused by the destruction of farmlands and agricultural equipment, the placing of Russian landmines across thousands of acres of useable fields, and blocking the delivery of humanitarian food aid; (4) imposing measures intended to prevent births among the Ukrainian people, demonstrated by the Russian military’s expansive and direct targeting of maternity hospitals and other medical facilities and systematic attacks against residential and civilian areas as well as humanitarian corridors intended to deprive Ukrainians of safe havens within their own country and the material conditions conducive to childrearing; and (5) forcibly mass transferring millions of Ukrainian civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom are children, to the Russian Federation or territories controlled by the Russian Federation; Whereas the intent of the Russian Federation and those acting on its behalf in favor of those heinous crimes against humanity has been demonstrated through frequent pronouncements and other forms of official communication denying Ukrainian nationhood, including President Putin’s ahistorical claims that Ukraine is part of a single whole Russian nation with no historical basis for being an independent country; Whereas some Russian soldiers and brigades accused of committing war crimes in Bucha, Ukraine, and elsewhere were rewarded with medals by President Putin; Whereas the Russian state-owned media outlet RIA Novosti published the article What Should Russia do with Ukraine , which outlines de-Nazification as meaning de-Ukrainianization or the destruction of Ukraine and rejection of the ethnic component of Ukraine; Whereas article I of the Genocide Convention confirms that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which [the Contracting Parties] undertake to prevent and to punish ; Whereas although additional documentation and analysis of atrocities committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine may be needed to punish those responsible, the substantial and significant documentation already undertaken, combined with statements showing intent, compel urgent action to prevent future acts of genocide; and Whereas the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act ( 22 U.S.C. 10101 et seq. ) authorizes the President to impose economic sanctions on, and deny entry into the United States to, foreign individuals identified as engaging in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1) condemns those acting on behalf of the Russian Federation for committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people; (2) calls on the United States, in cooperation with allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union, to undertake measures to support the Government of Ukraine to prevent acts of Russian genocide against the Ukrainian people; (3) supports tribunals and international criminal investigations to hold Russian political leaders and military personnel to account for a war of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide; and (4) urges the President to use the authorities under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act ( 22 U.S.C. 10101 et seq. ) to impose economic sanctions on those responsible for, or complicit in, genocide in Ukraine by the Russian Federation and those acting on its behalf.