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ACLJ Urges Presidential Candidates to Commit to Ending ISIS Genocide

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ACLJ.org

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September 29, 2016

4 min read

Persecuted Church

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The ISIS genocide continues. The Obama Administration acknowledged that the atrocities, in fact, constitute genocide but has done little to stop it.  This ongoing genocide will be one of the biggest issues facing our next President.

The ACLJ, along with over 217,000 Americans, wants to know how the next President of the United States will end ISIS’s ongoing genocide against Christians and other religious minorities.

As promised, and as part of our broader campaign against the genocide, this week the ACLJ delivered letters to each of the U.S. presidential candidates asking them just that – how does each candidate, if elected President of the United States, plan to end this genocide and protect the victims?  Each of the letters can be found here (Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein ).

Every day, Christians and other religious minorities experience unspeakable evil acts of violence at the hands of ISIS jihadists; acts that are designed to target and annihilate these specific groups of people. For Christians in ISIS-controlled territory, beheadings, enslavement, mass rape, and other atrocities are becoming commonplace. As a leading nation in the international community, it is imperative that the next President of the United States has a firm plan of action and is committed to engaging that plan of action to end the ISIS genocide. Our nation’s next leader needs to show Christians and other religious minorities who are pleading for our help that they are human and that we do care. Not only do we care, but we are committed to taking meaningful action to help and protect them.

Our letters to the presidential candidates requested that they each “provide the American citizens with a clear and detailed plan of action that indicates how [they] intend, if elected President of the United States, to end this genocide and protect the victims.” Furthermore, we urged them “to make a public commitment that, as President, [they] would indeed put that plan into action.”
The ACLJ has been actively and aggressively engaged in the genocide issue, and we recommended to each of the candidates the ACLJ’s Seven-Point Plan to end the genocide:

  • Call upon the United Nations Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to formally recognize the genocide against Christians and other religious minorities and demand that the United Nations as a whole do so as well.
  • Call upon the United Nations Office of Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide to fulfill its role “as a catalyst . . . to alert relevant actors where there is a risk of genocide, and to advocate and mobilize for appropriate action.”
  • Call upon the United Nations Security Council to refer the matter of genocide prosecution to the International Criminal Court, or establish “ad hoc tribunals” for genocide prosecution.
  • Demand international intervention to protect Christians and other religious minorities from genocide. International law requires that when a State “is manifestly failing to protect its populations” from genocide, “the international community must be prepared to take collective action to protect populations . . . .”
  • Call upon the United States Department of State and the United States delegation to the United Nations to demand United Nations action as set forth above.
  • Call for the establishment of in-region “safe zones” for the genocide victims. The establishment of these “safe zones” eliminates the need for mass refugee relocation to the United States before proper safeguards can be implemented.
  • Call for the creation of an effective international coalition to defeat ISIS militarily, for example, by expanding military efforts, changing the focus of the effort, and/or reevaluating the strategy of military action.

The ACLJ has already acted upon many of the points in our plan. However, having the next U.S. President also committed to this plan to end genocide is critical to ensure success. It is our hope that each candidate seriously considers the points addressed in our letters and incorporates the points of our plan that are complementary to their own plans to end the genocide.

Thank you for letting your voice be heard and showing each presidential candidate that the ISIS genocide is an important concern for the American people, and one that must be addressed. You can continue to stand with the ACLJ and support our fight to aid and protect the victims of genocide by signing our petition today.

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