Wendy Sherman: “And I rise in support of this measure. Mr. Speaker, this bill passed our committee by unanimous, bipartisan voice vote.…”

“And I rise in support of this measure. Mr. Speaker, this bill passed our committee by unanimous, bipartisan voice vote. It is named for Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and author who spent decades leading the fight to bring Nazis to justice. First, I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri, Ambassador Wagner, and the chairman of the Democratic Caucus, the gentleman from New York, Joe Crowley, for their work in bringing forward this very important bill that improves our capacity to prevent and respond to genocides and mass atrocities. I am pleased to be an original cosponsor of this legislation. Millions of innocent civilians have died in mass atrocities and genocides. I would like to take just a second to remind everyone of a few of these tragedies: The first genocide of the 20th century, the Armenian genocide, which killed approximately 1.5 million people; The Holocaust, from 1933 to 1945, more than 9 million people were killed, including over 6 million Jews; Cambodia in 1975, which saw the slaying of 2 million people; Rwanda in 1990, which saw the deaths of 800,000 in just 100 days; and Sudan, Darfur, and the tragedy there. Tragedies and crises like this are not just in the past. Today, we are witnessing mass killings of innocent people in many places around the globe. In Burma, the military has inflicted horrific violence against the Rohingya people. Thousands have been killed.…”