119-sres151

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 151 Introduced in Senate

    (IS) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
S. RES. 151

 Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States should 
 recognize the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as ``the genocide against the 
 Tutsi in Rwanda''.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

 April 1 (legislative day, March 31), 2025

 Mr. Rounds (for himself and Mr. Coons) submitted the following 
 resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

 RESOLUTION

 Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States should 
 recognize the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as ``the genocide against the 
 Tutsi in Rwanda''.

Whereas, in 2018, the United Nations General Assembly amended the title of the 
 annual observance of the genocide in Rwanda on April 7 to be the 
 ``International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi 
 in Rwanda'';
Whereas United States officials have noted publicly that the genocide in Rwanda 
 was ``intended to destroy Tutsi'';
Whereas, on April 7, 2023, Secretary of State Blinken stated, ``The U.S. stands 
 with Rwanda . . . in remembering the Tutsi victims of genocide. We also 
 mourn the others who were murdered for their opposition to a genocidal 
 regime.'';
Whereas the United States Integrated Country Strategy for Rwanda (approved March 
 14, 2022) refers to the ``1994 genocide against the Tutsi ethnic 
 group'';
Whereas Rwandan officials, in appropriately opposing genocide denial or 
 revisionism, aptly note that any nomenclature that does not specifically 
 use the phrase ``genocide against the Tutsi'' is ``ambiguous'' and 
 conducive to genocide denial or revisionism;
Whereas the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum notes in its public 
 educational materials on the ``genocide in Rwanda'' that the victims 
 were ``predominantly Tutsi'' and that the goal of Hutu extremist leaders 
 was for ``Rwandan Tutsis to be exterminated'';
Whereas the United States-based nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch, 
 which played a central role in documenting the genocide in Rwanda and in 
 supporting international efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice, 
 found that the ``Tutsi were being targeted for elimination'';
Whereas European diplomats refer to the ``genocide against the Tutsi'' in public 
 statements;
Whereas, starting in 2022, the Government of the United Kingdom has used the 
 terminology ``genocide against the Tutsi''; and
Whereas the United States is the only major country in the world to publicly 
 reject the terminology ``genocide against the Tutsi'': Now, therefore, 
 be it
 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--

    (1) the United States should recognize the 1994 genocide in 
 Rwanda as ``the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda'';

    (2) the Secretary of State should publicly affirm that 
 terminology; and

    (3) other types of atrocities occurred alongside the 
 genocide against the Tutsi, and the history of the genocide 
 should clearly affirm the other experiences of mass violence 
 against Rwandans during the same period, including the killings 
 and other violence experienced by Hutus and the Indigenous Twa 
 community, perpetrated by Hutu extremist militias.
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