Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 15th anniversary of the United States taking a principled stand toward ensuring that the lessons of past genocides, such as Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda, will be used to prevent future genocides.
After the horrors of the Holocaust, the international community responded to Nazi Germany's methodically orchestrated acts of genocide by approving the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948. The Convention confirms that genocide is a crime under international law and defines genocide as actions committed with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
The United States, under President Harry Truman, was the first nation to sign the Convention, and it was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1986. Following the Senate ratification of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Congress passed the Proxmire Act to implement the Convention and criminalize genocide under U.S. law.
Fifteen years ago today, President Ronald Reagan signed the Proxmire Act into law and put the United States on record as being strongly opposed to the heinous crime of genocide.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge consideration of H. Res. 193, legislation that I introduced with my colleague, Mr. Radanovich, reaffirming support of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and commemorating the anniversary of the U.S. becoming a full party to this landmark international human rights legislation.
This important piece of legislation has tremendous bipartisan support among the 110 cosponsors, and the bill was passed unanimously by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year.
Mr. Speaker, I urge the House Leadership to permit immediate consideration of this legislation on the floor of the House, and I urge my colleagues to reaffirm our national resolve to ensure that the lessons of the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda, among others, will not be forgotten.