House Resolution 16 - Introduced HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 16 BY STAED , KURTH , MASCHER , KACENA , STECKMAN , NIELSEN , ANDERSON , OURTH , M. SMITH , BEARINGER , KEARNS , McCONKEY , BENNETT , FINKENAUER , ABDUL-SAMAD , OLSON , OLDSON , HANSON , and GASKILL A Resolution recognizing the month of April 2017 as 1 Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. 2 WHEREAS, from 1915 to 1923, 1.5 million Armenians 3 and over 1 million Greeks, Assyrians, Pontians, 4 Syriacs, and others were massacred as part of the 5 planned eradication of these communities by the Ottoman 6 Turkish Empire; and 7 WHEREAS, the Holocaust was the state-sponsored, 8 systematic persecution and annihilation of European 9 Jews by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, resulting 10 in the murder of over 6 million Jews and millions more 11 Roma, Poles, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of 12 war, political dissidents, homosexuals, and people with 13 disabilities; and 14 WHEREAS, further cases of genocide include the 15 Cambodian killings in 1975, massacres in Bosnia 16 in 1992, the 1994 slaughter in Rwanda, and the 17 displacements and deaths in Darfur; and 18 WHEREAS, the United States House of Representatives 19 has adopted Concurrent Resolution 75, declaring the 20 atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State against 21 Christians, Yezidis, and other religious and ethnic 22 minorities in Iraq and Syria war crimes, crimes against 23 humanity, and genocide; and 24 WHEREAS, all of these tragedies, separated by time 25 -1- LSB 1864HH (3) 87 tr/nh 1/ 2
H.R. 16 and distance, have one common thread, the murder of 1 men, women, and children, young and old alike, based 2 only on where they lived, what God they worshipped, 3 what language they spoke, or to what community they 4 belonged; and 5 WHEREAS, by recognizing and remembering the Armenian 6 genocide, the Holocaust, and all cases of past and 7 ongoing genocide, we help protect historic memory, 8 ensure that similar atrocities do not occur again, 9 and remain vigilant against hatred, persecution, and 10 tyranny; NOW THEREFORE, 11 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, That 12 the House of Representatives recognizes the month of 13 April 2017 as Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month 14 in honor of all the survivors as well as rescuers and 15 liberators, and urges Iowa’s schools, universities, and 16 civic organizations to raise public awareness of the 17 history and horror of genocide and encourages public 18 debate on how genocide may be eliminated. 19 -2- LSB 1864HH (3) 87 tr/nh 2/ 2