Secretary of State John Kerry must decide by mid-March whether to make a formal declaration of genocide over atrocities committed by Islamic State in areas it occupies in Iraq and Syria.
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But department spokesman Mark Toner said Wednesday that Kerry was still gathering evidence before making his determination and would miss the deadline – an admission sure to trigger anger on Capitol Hill.
This week, the House voted unanimously to pass the resolution, which serves as additional pressure on President Barack Obama’s administration to follow suit as the March 17 deadline for the declaration looms nearer, according to Fox News.
“The United States needs to remember its role as the “shining city on a hill” that provides hope to all, and employ strong leadership to defeat these threats in the Middle East. (On Monday), the House has taken an important step to increase awareness for the atrocities in the Middle East and towards ending the violence and murders that ravage the region”.
During the Armenian Assembly of America’s (Assembly) meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) this month, Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny recalled Ryan’s involvement with the Armenian American community when he emceed the Assembly’s 2009 National Advocacy Conference & Banquet. “And if this has delayed the process, we believe it’s worth it”. “We have failed to recognize the Armenian Genocide and I urge my colleagues not to make the same mistake again”, he added.
They both signed onto a petition created by the Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus and the human rights advocacy group In Defense of Christians.
The Obama administration has been engaged in a heated internal debate since 2014 over whether “genocide” is the correct term to describe the situation, with a designation bringing requirements under global law to act.
Lawmakers set Thursday as the day on which the State Department would have to confirm whether the USA government regards the brutal IS persecution of religious minorities as a crime against humanity.
One reason the State Department is denying Christians the “genocide” designation is because a recent Holocaust Memorial Museum report said ISIS gives Christians the option to pay a tax to avoid conversion or death, as opposed to Yazidis and other minorities that have no other option than death.
In that case, the lawyers decided that the 1948 U.N. Convention against genocide did not require states to prevent genocide from taking place outside of their territory.
“ISIS is guilty of genocide”, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said.
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We are encouraged that the State Department requested and is now carefully reviewing the almost 300 page report that the Knights of Columbus delivered last week.
