US Congress declares genocide in Sudan

At about 9:00 PM EST tonight (Thursday, July 22) the United States Congress House of Representatives voted on the bill "Declaring genocide in Darfur, Sudan" and the vote for the bill was unanimous. At about the same time the Senate, in a unanimous voice vote, also passed its identical version of the bill. These historic votes were among the last of the congressional session, which is now adjurned for six weeks. The full text of the bills is reprinted here.

The vote makes a non-binding recommendation to the President of the United States to, among other things:

call the atrocities being committed in Darfur, Sudan by its rightful name: `genocide'

lead an international effort to prevent genocide in Darfur, Sudan

seriously consider multilateral or even unilateral intervention to prevent genocide should the United Nations Security Council fail to act

This is the first time such a move has been made by the US Congress during the actual committing of a genocide.

Update: strong, comprehensive CNN piece on Congress declaring a genocide in Darfur, Sudan.