Bill Text: TX HR258 | 2011 | 82nd Legislature 1st Special | Enrolled
Bill Title: Recognizing the month of April 2011 as Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2011-06-29 - Reported enrolled [HR258 Detail]
Download: Texas-2011-HR258-Enrolled.html
| H.R. No. 258 | ||
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| WHEREAS, Over the past 100 years, human history has witnessed | ||
| the horror of the Holocaust and other genocides, and in 2009, the | ||
| Texas Legislature established the Texas Holocaust and Genocide | ||
| Commission to further educate Texans about those tragedies and to | ||
| coordinate memorial events; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Because numerous genocides have originated in April | ||
| or have stemmed from events that occurred in April, many | ||
| institutions around the world have designated that month as a time | ||
| for raising awareness about how such catastrophes become possible; | ||
| and | ||
| WHEREAS, In April 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler became | ||
| chancellor of Germany, the Nazis issued decrees that defined | ||
| millions of Germans as non-Aryan, that banned most non-Aryans from | ||
| the practice of law and from employment in the civil service, and | ||
| that restricted their enrollment in schools of higher education; as | ||
| the ferocious campaign to protect the purity of Aryan blood | ||
| progressed, millions of people became caught up in the increasingly | ||
| murderous system; the victims included individuals from many | ||
| ethnic, national, religious, and secular groups, together with such | ||
| perceived undesirables as homosexuals, persons with disabilities, | ||
| prisoners of war, trade unionists, and Communists; targeted for | ||
| total extermination were the Jews and the Roma; by the time World | ||
| War II ended, approximately six million Jews, two-thirds of those | ||
| living in Europe, had perished; estimates for Roma losses range | ||
| from about 250,000 to 500,000, including approximately | ||
| three-fourths of those in Germany and half of those in Austria; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In April 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh, | ||
| the capital of Cambodia, and initiated the evacuation of that and | ||
| all other Cambodian cities and towns in order to reorganize the | ||
| country as a classless peasant society; during the reign of the | ||
| Khmer Rouge, it is estimated that more than two million people died | ||
| as a result of torture and execution, as well as of disease, | ||
| starvation, and overwork on the new communal farms; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In April 1992, Serbian forces laid siege to | ||
| Sarajevo, the Muslim-controlled capital of the newly independent | ||
| country of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the attack on Sarajevo began a | ||
| period of "ethnic cleansing," which was aimed at expelling Muslims | ||
| from territory claimed by the Serbs; among the atrocities that | ||
| followed, the most notorious was the massacre at Srebenica, in | ||
| which some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In April 1994, the airplane of the Rwandan | ||
| president, a member of the Hutu ethnic group, was shot down; the | ||
| attack set in motion the slaying of moderate Hutu leaders by Hutu | ||
| hardliners and the slaughter, over the next three months, of | ||
| 800,000 Tutsis; in April 2003, the displacement of Darfurians began | ||
| in Sudan, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths and the | ||
| displacement of millions; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In 2008, the Prevention of Genocide Task Force, | ||
| convened by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the | ||
| American Academy of Diplomacy, and the United States Institute of | ||
| Peace, issued a report stating that in order to stop future | ||
| genocides and mass atrocities, effective prevention measures must | ||
| be implemented before a crisis erupts; central to this notion was | ||
| the idea that educating the public serves to protect individual | ||
| rights and promotes a culture of lawfulness that can help to prevent | ||
| future genocides; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Genocide often begins with the stratification of a | ||
| community in such a way that one group is ostracized and dehumanized | ||
| and a spirit of intolerance is created that can lead to the mass | ||
| murder of the targeted group and its supporters; it is hoped that | ||
| learning about past and current genocides will create a recognition | ||
| of the need for society to act when presented with instances of | ||
| hatred and intolerance and will encourage people to rally to the | ||
| protection of individual rights; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The Texas House of Representatives has chosen the | ||
| month of April to emphasize the need to heighten public awareness of | ||
| the early stages of human behavior that spawn acts of genocide, the | ||
| need to build strong communities and prevent future genocides, and | ||
| the need at the state and national levels to continue to honor all | ||
| who have been victimized by genocide; now, therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 82nd Texas | ||
| Legislature, 1st Called Session, hereby recognize the month of | ||
| April 2011 as Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month as a tribute | ||
| to all whose lives have been touched by genocide and as a reminder | ||
| of the need for the protection of human rights and for vigilance | ||
| against the forces of intolerance. | ||
| Naishtat | ||
| ______________________________ | ||
| Speaker of the House | ||
| I certify that H.R. No. 258 was adopted by the House on June | ||
| 28, 2011, by a non-record vote. | ||
| ______________________________ | ||
| Chief Clerk of the House | ||
