ICC Note: A group of Senators are pressing for the U.S. State Department to do far more to protect the religious minorities in Iraq and Syria. “We have an obligation to stand up for human rights,” Senator Sherrod Brown said. The United States has been a strong protector of minorities in the past, “we should do so again now,” Senator Roger Wicker said.

12/17/2014 Iraq (The Hill) A bipartisan group of senators demanded Secretary of State John Kerry do more to protect religious minorities in Syria and Iraq.

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) led a letter to Kerry on Tuesday asking him to allow Syrian and Iraqi Christians and Yazidis to find refuge in the United States.

“We have an obligation to stand up for human rights,” Brown said. “The U.S. has pledged humanitarian assistance for relief in Iraq and Syria, and that should include refugee assistance for persecuted religious minorities facing persecution.”
The senators said the State Department should also provide these minorities with better access to U.S. humanitarian aid.

“The oppression of Christians and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq has led to an unspeakable humanitarian crisis,” Wicker said. “Tens of thousands have had to flee their homes to seek sanctuary from the Islamic State — whose savage treatment of these people is well-documented. The United States has historically protected minorities facing similar circumstances. We should do so again now.”
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