PRINTER'S NO. 3475

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

No.

817

Session of

2020

INTRODUCED BY INNAMORATO, DELLOSO, DONATUCCI, KORTZ, ROTHMAN,

MILLARD, LEE, BURNS, HILL-EVANS, BROWN, KIM, ROZZI, MALAGARI,

NEILSON, MIZGORSKI, FRANKEL, HOHENSTEIN, BURGOS, FREEMAN,

Prevention Month" in Pennsylvania.

WHEREAS, During World War II, Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer

of Jewish descent, coined the term "genocide" to describe a

coordinated plan of action aimed at the destruction of the

foundations of national groups, with the aim of annihilating an

entire group; and

WHEREAS, Genocide disintegrates the political and social

institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion and

economic existence of a group while destroying the personal

security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of individuals

WHEREAS, The convention defined genocide to include the

commission of certain acts, including killing members of a

group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a

group, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to

bring about a group's physical destruction in whole or in part,

imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group and

forcibly transferring children of the group to another with the

intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic,

racial or religious group; and

WHEREAS, Genocide and mass atrocities are crimes that have

this country, including the genocide of indigenous peoples,

enslavement of individuals of African and African-American

descent and racial terror lynchings; and

WHEREAS, This Commonwealth is home to individuals who have

endured genocide and mass atrocities in their countries of

origin; and

WHEREAS, The General Assembly passed Act 70 of 2014 to

encourage schools to include education about the Holocaust,

genocide and human rights violations from grades 6 through 12;

and

and

WHEREAS, Together We Remember is an organization dedicated to

ending all forms of identity-based violence, including genocide,

through remembrance vigils that encourage communities to face

historical traumas and take peaceful action to address the

trauma through dialogue, education, technology and advocacy; and

WHEREAS, World Without Genocide is an organization that works

to protect innocent people in various countries, prevent

genocide, advocate for the sentencing of perpetrators and

recognize and remember those who have been victimized by

that helps to prevent future genocides and hate crimes; and

WHEREAS, The month of April marks many genocides in history

such as the anniversary of the siege of Sarajevo on April 5, the

Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Rwanda Genocide on

April 7, the Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 21, the

anniversary of the start of the Cambodian genocide on April 17

and the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24; and

WHEREAS, Many other states such as Minnesota, California and

Texas have designated April as "Genocide Awareness and

Prevention Month"; and

and progression of mass violence, strives to build more peaceful

communities locally and globally and serves as an effective tool

to further these goals; therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives recognize the

month of April 2020 as "Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month"

in Pennsylvania; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Commonwealth condemn and desire to combat

all acts of genocide and identity-based violence and counteract

attitudes of intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism, hatred and

extremism that enable mass violence.