Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987 - Ronald Reagan address - transcript

US Department of State Bulletin, Jan, 1989

President Reagan's remarks at the signing ceremony of the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987 in Chicago on November 4, 1988, and the text of a White House fact sheet.

PRESIDENT'S REMARKS'

We gather today to bear witness to the past and learn from its awful example to make sure we are not condemned to relive its crimes. I am today signing the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987, which will permit the United States to become party to the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide that was approved by the UN General Assembly in 1948.

During the Second World War, mankind witnessed the most heinous of crimes-the Holocaust. After the war, the nations of the world came together and drafted the genocide convention as a howl of anguish and an effort to prevent and punish future acts of genocide. The United States signed the convention and in 1949, President Truman requested the Senate's advice and consent to ratification.

In 1986, the Senate gave its consent conditioned upon enactment of implementing legislation. We finally close the circle today by signing the implementing legislation that will permit the United States to ratify the convention and formally join 97 nations of the world in condemning genocide and treating it as a crime.

I am delighted to fulfill the promise made by Harry TI-uman to all the peoples of the world-and especially the Jewish people. I remember what the Holocaust meant to me as I watched the films of the death camps after the Nazi defeat in World War Two. Slavs, Gypsies, and others died in the fires as well. And we've seen other horrors this century-in the Ukraine, in Cambodia, in Ethiopia. They only renew our rage and righteous fury and make this moment all the more significant for me and all Americans.

Under this legislation, any U.S. national or any person in the United States who kills members of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group with the specific intent of destroying that group in whole or in substantial part, may spend his or her life in prison. Lesser acts of violence are punishable by as much as 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. While I would have preferred that Congress had adopted the Administration's proposal to permit the death penalty for those convicted of committing genocidal murders, this legislation still represents a strong and clear statement by the United States that it will punish acts of genocide with the force of law and the righteousness of justice.

Timing of the enactment is particularly fitting, for we are commemorating a Week of Remembrance of the Kristallnacht, the infamous "night of broken glass," which occurred 50 years ago on November 9, 1938. That night, Nazis in Germany and Austria conducted a nationwide pogrom against the Jewish people. By the morning of November 10th, scores of Jews were dead, hundreds bleeding, shops and homes in ruins, and synagogues defiled and debased. That was the night that began the Holocaust, the night that should have alerted the world to the gruesome design of the final solution.

This legislation resulted from the cooperation of our Administration and many in Congress-such as Congressmen Henry Hyde, Jack Davis, and John Porter, and Senator Bill Proxmire-to ensure that the United States redoubles its efforts to gain universal observance of human rights.

We pay tribute to those who suffered that night and all the nights that followed upon it with our action today.

WHITE HOUSE FACT SHEET

President Reagan today signed legislation which amends the U.S. criminal code to allow the United States to ratify the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly and signed by the United States in 1948. The United States will join 97 other nations which have ratified the genocide treaty.

The President actively supported the genocide treaty and urged the U.S. Senate to give its long-overdue consent to this important international agreement. The Senate gave its consent to ratification on February 19, 1986, on the condition that implementing legislation be enacted. That legislation, passed by Congress overwhelmingly last month [October 19, 1988], was signed by the President today.

Treaty Background

The International Convention on Genocide, which declared genocide to be a crime under international law, was drafted in response to the Nazi Holocaust and was approved unanimously by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1948. The United States was the first nation to sign the treaty.

On June 16, 1949, President Harry S Truman submitted the treaty to the Senate for its advice and consent. Every president from Truman to Reagan urged the Senate to act.

President Reagan's support, along with the efforts of numerous senators of both parties, moved the Senate to finally consent to the genocide treaty after nearly 37 years.

Terms of ihe Treaty

The act defines genocide as acting with a "specific intent to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."