July 2016 Action Item
July Action Item
We have all seen the gruesome headlines about what Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities face amid the violent conflicts in Syria and Iraq. And we have all wondered at the inability, or perhaps unwillingness, of the international community to effectively intervene in these situations. However, if the UN officially declares this targeted violence as the genocide that it is, the international community will then have a legal obligation to act. Let's join with Christian Solidarity Worldwide and others to call upon UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to officially designate minority-targeted violence in Iraq and Syria as genocide. A sample letter is included below, but please feel free to personalize it to express your own concern.
Write to:
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Palais des Nations
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Your Honorable Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon:
There are strong indications that acts of genocide have been committed in Syria and Iraq. Civilians have been massacred and people have been targeted simply because of their religion or ethnicity.
Members of the international community who are signatories to the 1948 UN 'Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide’ are legally obliged to take the necessary action to assess the credibility of this evidence, and, if necessary, prevent further atrocities and punish the perpetrators.
We’re also morally obliged to act to prevent further mass murders, assassination of faith leaders, torture, sexual enslavement and systematic rape. In 1994 the world stood by and watched as genocide was committed in Rwanda. We cannot stand by once again while even the threat of genocide exists.
Please use your authority under Article 99 of the UN Charter to urge the UN Security Council to initiate a resolution calling for an investigation into whether genocide is being committed against religious and ethnic minorities in Syria and Iraq, and to recommend an immediate and appropriate international response based on these findings.