HF 1206

as introduced - 87th Legislature (2011 - 2012) Posted on 03/21/2011 09:24am

A bill for an act
relating to state government; designating the month of April as Genocide
Awareness and Prevention Month; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota
Statutes, chapter 10.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

Section 1.

new text begin [10.581] GENOCIDE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION MONTH.
new text end

new text begin (a) Beginning in 2011, the month of April is designated as Genocide Awareness and
Prevention Month in recognition of the state's desire to combat all acts of genocide and
all human rights atrocities. Following the holocaust, on December 9, 1948, the United
Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 260 (III) A, the United Nations Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, declaring genocide to be a
crime under international law, and defining genocide to include the commission of certain
acts, including killing members of a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to
members of a group, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about a
group's physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent
births within a group, and forcibly transferring children of a group to another group, with
the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
The state declares that in order to prevent future genocides and mass atrocities, effective
prevention measures must be implemented before a crisis has erupted, and that educating
the public can help to protect individual rights and promote a culture of lawfulness that
will help prevent future genocides.
new text end

new text begin (b) The governor may take any action necessary to promote and encourage the
observance of Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month.
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new text begin EFFECTIVE DATE. new text end

new text begin This section is effective the day following final enactment.
new text end