House Joint Resolution 16-1013 Summary

• Declares that atrocities committed against Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities (including Yezidis, Turkmen, Sabean-Mandeans, Kaka'e, Shi'a, and Kurds) constitute crimes against humanity and genocide in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide signed December 9, 1948.

• Reminds all governments and nationals supporting these crimes of their legal obligations under international agreements forbidding war crimes and crimes against humanity.

• Calls on every government and multinational body to officially designate these atrocities as "crimes against humanity," "war crimes," and "genocide," and urges the United Nations to assert leadership in making these designations.

• Calls on United Nations member states to join the resolution, collaborate on preventing further atrocities, and establish domestic, regional, and international tribunals to prosecute those responsible.

• Commends the governments of Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, the United States, and European Union member states for sheltering refugees fleeing ISIS and other extremists, and calls for tracking, sanctioning, arresting, prosecuting, and punishing those forcing religious communities from ancestral homelands including the Nineveh Plain and Mount Sinjar.