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

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