Elie Wiesel Act Passes Out Of U.S. Senate
Yesterday, The Elie Wiesel Act was passed out of the United States Senate by Unanimous Consent. 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 was amended and passed out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
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 mass atrocity situations are becoming a threat 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, and we would like to thank Senator Corker for his leadership in seeing the Elie Wiesel Act moved through his committee and into the Senate.
S.1158 now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives.
