Geospatial Support for Atrocity Accountability Act

Geospatial Support for Atrocity Accountability Act

This bill requires the Department of State to ensure that information and intelligence related to war crimes and atrocities are shared within the State Department and with certain other entities. For example, the State Department's Atrocity Warning Task Force must provide unclassified commercial geospatial imagery to domestic and international courts prosecuting persons responsible for crimes against humanity, if such imagery may provide evidence of such crimes.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7758 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7758

   To improve the intelligence received by the Secretary of State to 
             identify, prevent, and respond to atrocities.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 12, 2022

 Ms. Stefanik (for herself, Ms. Spanberger, Mr. Moulton, Mr. Wittman, 
  Ms. Salazar, Mr. Johnson of Louisiana, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. 
  Lamborn, and Mr. Wilson of South Carolina) introduced the following 
      bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To improve the intelligence received by the Secretary of State to 
             identify, prevent, and respond to atrocities.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Geospatial Support for Atrocity 
Accountability Act''.

SEC. 2. PROVISION OF INTELLIGENCE TO IDENTIFY, PREVENT, AND RESPOND TO 
              ATROCITIES.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of State, acting through the 
Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization 
Operations, shall ensure that the Department of State receives the 
following information of the United States Government:
            (1) Intelligence to identify, prevent, and respond to 
        atrocities pursuant to the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities 
        Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-441; 132 Stat. 5586).
            (2) Evidence and information collected, analyzed, or 
        preserved relating to war crimes, other atrocities, forced 
        disappearances, and atrocity crime scenes.
    (b) Department of State Atrocity Warning Task Force.--The Secretary 
of State shall ensure that intelligence, evidence, and information 
received pursuant to subsection (a) is provided to the Department of 
State Atrocity Warning Task Force. The Task Force shall provide 
unclassified commercial geospatial imagery and analysis of such imagery 
received pursuant to subsection (a) to--
            (1) appropriate domestic, foreign, and international courts 
        and tribunals prosecuting persons responsible for crimes for 
        which such imagery may provide evidence (including genocide, 
        crimes against humanity, and war crimes, including with respect 
        to missing persons and suspected atrocity crime scenes);
            (2) the International Commission on Missing Persons and 
        relevant civil society organizations (in addition to providing 
        such organizations with other evidence archived by the Task 
        Force); and
            (3) the public to notify persons of potential atrocities 
        and warn persons who are believed to be preparing to commit 
        atrocities.
    (c) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Atrocities.--The term ``atrocities'' has the meaning 
        given that term in section 6 of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and 
        Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-441; 132 
        Stat. 5586).
            (2) Atrocity crime scene.--The term ``atrocity crime 
        scene'' means one or more locations that are relevant to the 
        investigation of an atrocity, including buildings or locations 
        (including bodies of water) where physical evidence may be 
        collected relating to the perpetrators, victims, and events of 
        the atrocity, such as mass graves and other sites containing 
        deceased individuals.
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