WASHINGTON, DC – Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd (D), Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton (D), and Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski (D) have become the latest to pledge their support for the Genocide Resolution (S.Res.164), adding their names to a broad bipartisan group of 34 Senators co-sponsoring this measure, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“We join with the Connecticut, Minnesota and Maryland Armenian communities in welcoming Senators Dodd, Dayton and Mikulski as supporters of the Genocide Convention,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We look forward to working with both of their offices – and with all the other cosponsors of this legislation – to encourage this legislation’s adoption by the U.S. Senate.”

S.Res.164, introduced in the Senate on June 10th by Senators John Ensign (R-NV) and Jon Corzine (D-NJ), marks the 15th anniversary of the U.S. implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. This landmark Convention, adopted by the United Nations in the 1948, specifically identifies genocide as a crime under international law. The legislation cites the Armenian Genocide as an example of past genocides, along with the Holocaust and the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides.

Companion legislation in the House was introduced by Reps. George Radanovich (R-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) on April 10th. With 110 cosponsors, the legislation (H.Res.193) was unanimously adopted by the Judiciary Committee on May 21st and currently awaits consideration by the full House.

A coalition of over 70 ethnic, religious, human and civil rights, and educational organizations have come together in support of the Genocide Resolution. Among the groups in the coalition are the NAACP, National Organization of Women, Union of Orthodox Rabbis, National Council of Churches, American Hellenic Institute and all major Armenian American organizations.