Washington, DC– In 2016, the U.S. Congress and Secretary of State recognized that ISIS is responsible for genocide against religious minorities in areas under its control in Iraq and Syria – Yazidis, Christians, and others. One year later, nearly all of the survivors of the ongoing genocide remain uprooted from their communities, either as refugees or internally displaced persons. Without security, aid, justice, fundamental rights, and economic revitalization, these communities may never be able to return and rebuild. To date, too few of the survivors have received assistance from the American people through U.S. government and UN programs.
To ensure that these communities survive in Iraq and Syria, and to promote American interests and values, we, the undersigned, urge the Trump administration and the U.S. Congress to take the following steps as the U.S. and Coalition drive ISIS back and liberate occupied territory:
Direct the Departments of State and Defense to develop plans to secure, stabilize, and revitalize the ancestral homelands of indigenous religious minority communities targeted by ISIS for genocide in northern Iraq – particularly in the Sinjar, Nineveh Plain, and Tal Afar areas. State, Defense, and supporting agencies should ensure that these communities receive U.S. and UN humanitarian aid and should encourage the private investment necessary to restore the productivity of these once self-sufficient local economies.
Direct all agencies with a national security or law enforcement mission to use all available means to bring to justice both the perpetrators of this genocide and their accessories: the material cooperators (collaborators, affiliates, financiers, and facilitators) of ISIS, Al Qaeda, and their affiliates. The administration should also work with Congress to facilitate criminal and civil litigation to bring the aiders and abettors of this genocide to justice in the U.S. and worldwide.
Appoint qualified and committed individuals to implement and oversee these priorities, with the aim of advancing national security and human rights, to the following posts:
- National Security Council Special Advisor for Human Rights;
- National Security Council Special Advisor for Religious Freedom;
- Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights;
- Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism;
- Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom;
- Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Asia;
- Special Representative for Religion and Global Affairs;
- Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice;
- U.S. Representative UN Human Rights Council.
Nina Shea
Director
Hudson Institute Center for
Religious Freedom
Professor Robert P. George
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
Former Chairman, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
Stephen Hollingshead
Director
IraqHaven.org
Andrew Doran
Senior Advisor
In Defense of Christians
Robert Nicholson
Executive Director
The Philos Project
Mark Tooley
President
Institute on Religion and Democracy
Faith J. H. McDonnell
Director, Religious Liberty Program
Institute on Religion and Democracy
Toufic Baaklini
President
In Defense of Christians
Philippe Nassif
Executive Director
In Defense of Christians
Mark Corallo
CEO
Corallo Media Strategies
Kathyrn Jean Lopez
National Review Institute
Jordan Allott
In Altum Productions
IDC Senior Advisor
Gregory Gross
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
Board Member, Solidarity with the Pilgrim Church
Steve Wagner
Solidarity with the Pilgrim Church
Juliana Taimoorazy
Founder and President
Iraqi Christian Relief Council
Loay Mikhael
In Defense of Christians
Paul Coleman
Director and Senior Counsel ADF International
Emilie Kao Deputy
Former Team Leader, Office of ADF International
International Religious Freedom
U.S. Department of State
Uzay Bulut
Philos Project
Columnist
Ms. Zina Rose Kiryakos
Chaldean-American International Attorney
Iraqi Christian Human Rights Council
President
Dr. Gerald Bidawid
Patriarch Raphael Bidawid Foundation
President
Carmen LaBerge
Radio Talk Show Host Reconnect
With Carmen LaBerge
Paul Rahe
Hillsdale College
Michael Cromartie
Vice President
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Herb London
President
London Center for Policy Research
Kevin Jessip
Founder / President
Global Strategic Alliance, Inc.
Dr. Paul de Vries, PhD,
President
New York Divinity School
Joel Rosenberg
Author
Rev. Thomas Lambrecht
Vice-President & General Manager
Good News
David D. Swanson
Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church
Orlando, FL
Gerald R McDermott
Beeson Divinity School
Paula Kweskin
Producer
Faithkeepers
Dr. Jeffrey Jeremiah
Stated Clerk
Evangelical Presbyterian Church
David Neff, ret.
Christianity Today
Most Reverend Bishop Barnaba Yousif Benham Habash
Eparch of the Syrian Catholic Eparchy
Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark
Bishop of more than 18,000 Syriac Catholics in the United States and Canada
Robert Destro
Professor of Law & Director, Interdisciplinary Program in Law & Religion at The Catholic University of America
His Excellency Bishop Francis Y. Kalabat
Eparch of the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy
St. Thomas the Apostle in Detroit
Bishop of more than 150,000 Chaldean Catholics in the United States
Mr. Tom Alkatib
Founder and President
Chaldean Heritage Foundation
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez
President
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
Hispanic Evangelical Association
Nicholas G. Hahn III
Chief Opinion Editor
The Hill
Congressman Frank R. Wolf, ret.
21st Century Wilberforce Initiative
Rev. Johnnie Moore
Founder, The KAIROS Company
Author, Defying ISIS
Rev. John Bradosky, Bishop
North American Lutheran Church
Mitch Boersma
Chief Operating Officer
Catholic Information Center
Aram Suren Hamparian
Executive Director
Armenian National Committee of America
Michael De Dora
Director of Government Affairs
Main Representative to the United Nations Center for Inquiry
Nathan Wineinger
Director of Policy Relations
21st Century Wilberforce Initiative
Dr. Greg Mitchell Dr. Sargoun Issa
Co-Chair of the International Vice President and Co-
Religious Freedom Roundtable Founder of the Restore
President of the Mitchell Firm Nineveh Now Foundation
Pervez Paul Rafique
Executive Director President
Bleeding for Belief
Former Member of Parliament Punjab
Pakistan
Tony Perkins
Family Research Council
Mustafa Akhwand Metodija A. Koloski
Executive Director President
Shia Rights Watch United Macedonian Diaspora
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton Scott Morgan
Founding Chairman President
Genocide Watch Red Eagle Enterprises
Lauren B. Homer Rev. Susan Taylor
President, Law and Liberty Trust Church of Scientology
Owner, Homer International Law, PLLC National Affairs Office
David William Lazar, MBA Ian Speir
Chairman and Co-Founder Attorney
American Mesopotamian Organization Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP
Lindsay Griffin
Coptic Solidarity
Director of Development & Advocacy
Jeff King
President
International Christian Concern
Ann Buwalda
Executive Director Richard Land, D. Phil.
Jubilee Campaign USA Inc. President
Southern Evangelical
James Chen Seminary
Executive Director
Institute for Global Engagement
Gary Bauer Joseph Hakim
Chairman President
Chairman of Campaign International Christian Union
for Working Families PAC
Adlay Kejjan The Most Reverent Gregory Mansour
Executive Director Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn
Yazidi American Women Organization
Very Rev. Nathanael Symeonides
Director, Dept. of Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical
and Interfaith Relations
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Carl Anderson
Supreme Knight of Knights of Columbus
Marking the Anniversary of the U.S. Government’s Recognition of the ISIS Genocide in Iraq and Syria
Participating Members of Congress:
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
Participating Genocide Coalition Experts:
Nadia Murad
Yazidi Genocide Survivor
Philippe Nassif
In Defense of Christians
Robert Nicholson
Philos Project
Nina Shea
Hudson Institute
Rev. Johnny Moore
Author of Defying ISIS
Dr. Greg Stanton
Genocide Watch
Naomi Kikoler
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Adlay Kejjan
Yazidi American Women Organization
Master of Ceremony:
Prof. Robert Destro
Genocide Coalition
Other Speakers and Members of Congress Being Confirmed |