Elie Wiesel Act Is Now U.S. Law
The Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act is now federal law! For the first time, the prevention of atrocities is now legally considered to be in the U.S. national interest.
Yesterday, The Elie Wiesel Act was signed into federal law by the President of the United States. This is a moment our organization and 600+ of our supporters in Tennessee helped make possible. Last update, we mentioned that because of your advocacy the bill passed out of Congress with widespread and bipartisan support and was sent to the President.
What The Bill Does
S. 1158 is new federal legislation that helps ensure the U.S. government has the tools, training, and funding needed to save lives and promote peace when it becomes apparent that serious mass atrocity threats are emerging on foreign soil. Specifically, this legislation:
Affirms that atrocity prevention is in the U.S. national interest;
Calls on the government to pursue a government-wide strategy to: strengthen U.S. diplomatic, risk analysis/monitoring, early warning, and response capacities around atrocity crimes; improve the use of U.S. foreign assistance to address the root causes of violent conflict; strengthen support to transitional justice mechanisms and local civil society groups in countries at risk of or experiencing mass atrocities; support and strengthen local civil society, including human rights defenders and others working to help prevent and respond to atrocities; promote financial transparency and enhance anti-corruption initiatives as part of addressing causes of conditions that may lead to atrocities; and prioritize preventative diplomacy through unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral mechanisms;
Requires specialized training for Foreign Service Officers who will be deployed to a country experiencing or at risk of mass atrocities; and
Mandates annual reporting to Congress of the Executive Branch's efforts to prevent and respond to mass atrocities, provide an assessment of countries and regions at risk of such violence, and provide a report on Foreign Service Officer training.
Additional information about the bill and the full text can be found here.
We would like to thank all of you for raising up your voices around this bill. A special thank you to now retired Senator Corker for his leadership in seeing the Elie Wiesel Act moved through his committee and into the Senate. We would also like to thank Congressmen David Kustoff (R-TN) and Steve Cohen (D-TN) for cosponsoring the House version of this bill that passed that chamber in July, as well as for their yay votes on S.1158 in 2018.
