The Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act makes the prevention of genocide and other crimes a matter of national security, and aims to improve and increase the U.S. response to potential and emerging genocides.
By JNS and EJP
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed new bipartisan legislation committing the United States to preventing genocide, named in honor of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel.
The Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, introduced by Congressman Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), and Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) makes the prevention of genocide and other crimes a matter of national security, and aims to improve and increase the U.S. response to potential and emerging genocides.
It establishes a Mass Atrocities Task Force to provide training to U.S. Foreign Service officers on detecting early signs of atrocities and will mandate the director of national intelligence to report on atrocities in an annual crime report to Congress.
Wiesel was a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, where his mother and young sister were murdered. He wrote extensively about his experiences, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, becoming a famous spokesperson for Holocaust survivors before passing away on July 2, 2016.
Also on Jan. 14, Trump signed into law House Resolution 672, the Combating European Anti-Semitism Act of 2017, which expresses the sense of the Congress that it is in America’s national interest to confront anti-Semitism at home and abroad.
World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder welcomed the US government’s approval of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act.
“The US government has taken an important leading step today in speaking out against genocides and atrocities and affirming its critical responsibility in working to eradicate these cancers from within our society,” said Lauder.
“There is no more appropriate person to name this law after than Elie Wiesel, who throughout his life served as a moral compass for humanity. Elie taught the world that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. It is imperative that this message continues to live on,” Lauder said.
“We cannot sit by in silence amid the growing threats of terror, racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism,” Lauder. “We must actively pursue the tolerance and security that we wish to see, to make this world a better place for our children and their children. I thank the US government for making it absolutely clear that this critical issue must be addressed head on by all.”
January 27 will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.