The International Religious Freedom Summit was held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Among the numerous speakers and panelists was Beth Van Schaack, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice. In her remarks (full text), she said in part:
Today, several million Muslims are the victims of two contemporary genocides. One such genocide is being committed by authorities of the People’s Republic of China against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. The other is being committed by members of the Burmese military against predominantly Muslim Rohingya. The Secretary of State has made a public genocide determination in both cases....
Although victim and survivor groups tend to gravitate toward the genocide label, ... [w]e do a great disservice to victims when crimes against humanity are omitted from our condemnation....
Crimes against humanity encompass a range of acts made criminal under international law when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population. Prohibited acts include murder, torture, sexual violence, and persecution....
This is a crime that can be prosecuted before many national and international tribunals, including the International Criminal Court. The international community is in the process of drafting a crimes against humanity statute—an effort in which my office is actively involved. Unfortunately, however, the United States does not have a crimes against humanity statute, so this is not a crime that we can prosecute domestically. Senator Durbin has worked for years on getting such a statute enacted and we are hopeful that he can build the congressional consensus he needs around this effort this congressional term.
