“The ISIS Genocide Declaration: What Next?” is the title of a congressional hearing on Thursday to be held by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), chairman of the Africa and Global Human Rights Subcommittee.

   “Now that the Administration has determined that religious minorities in Iraq and Syria are victims of genocide by ISIS, the question is ‘what next?’” said Smith. “At our hearing, experts will recommend steps the Administration can take to protect these vulnerable communities and to seek justice in Iraq and Syria.”

   Following the May 26 hearing, Smith hopes to convene a second hearing featuring witnesses from the Administration who can clearly articulate what the Administration intends to do to put its words into action.

WHAT:      Congressional hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee

WHO:        Smith, members of the Subcommittee on Africa and global human rights, and witnesses:

• Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight, Knights of Columbus

• Sarhang Hamasaeed, Senior Program Officer, Middle East and Africa Programs, U.S. Institute of Peace

• Johnny Oram, Executive Director, Chaldean Assyrian Business Alliance

• David M. Crane, Professor of Practice, Syracuse University College of Law (Former Chief Prosecutor, United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone)

• Naomi Kikoler, Deputy Director, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

WHEN:      Thursday, May 26 at 12 PM.

WHERE:   Room 2172 in the Rayburn House Office Building (first floor).

    This will be the third hearing that Rep. Smith has held on the genocide. He co-chaired “Genocidal Attacks Against Christian and Other Religious Minorities in Syria and Iraq” (September 10, 2014) and chaired “Fulfilling the Humanitarian Imperative: Assisting Victims of ISIS Violence” (December 9, 2015). “I and others have been raising the alarm about ISIS’s genocidal campaign of mass murder since it began almost two years ago,” said Smith. “If the U.S. government now walks away from these people it has declared are genocide victims, it will be re-victimizing them with indifference. We–and the suffering people of Iraq and Syria–need to know what has to be done and what will be done.”

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