Howard Berman: “The purpose of the Genocide Accountability Act is to ensure that no perpetrator of genocide is able to use the United…”

“The purpose of the Genocide Accountability Act is to ensure that no perpetrator of genocide is able to use the United States as a safe haven for prosecution. After the Holocaust, the Genocide Convention was the embodiment of the world's pledge, the promise of 'never again.' And yet this promise has proven to be one of the world's most unfulfilled. Not very long ago, genocide was the scourge of Bosnia, and before that, Rwanda. Two years ago, this body passed a resolution acknowledging that the devastation and murderous violence occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan was a genocide. Unfortunately, the genocide in Darfur remains an ongoing crime today. The struggle to prevent and punish genocide has been, and unfortunately will be, winding and long. The bill we are considering today acknowledges that in some cases the perpetrators of this evil have ended up not just on the doorstep of the United States, but living inside our house.”