¹ Da’esh is an Arabic acronym of al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi Iraq wa ash-Sham—meaning the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. When spoken in Arabic, Da’esh sounds similar to the Arabic phrase for “sowers of discord” or “one who crushes underfoot.” The term has a pejorative connotation, and several different countries have started using it instead of ISIS or ISIL in order to deny legitimacy to the terrorist organization. See generally Crowcroft, Orlando, Why ISIS Hates Being Called Daesh: What’s the Correct Name for the World’s Most Dangerous Terrorists?, Int’l Bus. Times (Dec. 2, 2015), at http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/why-isis-hate-being-called-daesh-whats-correct-name-world s-most-dangerous-terrorists-1531506 Google Scholar. Kerry started using the term Daesh instead of ISIL in December, 2014. See Taylor, Adam, ‘Daesh’: John Kerry Starts Calling the Islamic State a Name they Hate, Wash. Post (Dec. 5, 2014), at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/12/05/daesh-john-kerry-starts-calling-the-is lamic-state-a-name-they-hate Google Scholar.

² U.S. Dep’t of State Press Release, Sec’y of State John Kerry, Remarks on Daesh and Genocide (Mar. 17, 2016), at http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/03/254782.htm [hereinafter Kerry Remarks].

³ Chandler, Adam, How Meaningful is the ISIS Genocide Designation?, The Atlantic (Mar. 19, 2016), at http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/03/isis-genocide-designation/474414/ Google Scholar; see also Crook, John R., Contemporary Practice of the United States, 99 AJIL 266 (2005)Google Scholar.

⁴ Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, H.R. 2029, 114th Cong. § 7033 (2015).

⁵ H.R. Con. Res. 75, 114th Cong. (2016). The Resolution passed by a vote of 393 to 0. Final Results for Roll Call 112, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives (Mar. 14, 2016), at http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2016/roll112.xml.

⁶ H.R. Con. Res. 75, 114th Cong. (2016).

⁷ Iraqi Parliament Resolution Calls ISIS Acts Genocide, Assyrian Int’l News Agency (Aug. 7, 2014), at http://www.aina.org/news/20140807164526.htm.

⁸ Pavlich, Katie, State Department Declares ISIS is Committing Genocide Against Christians in Iraq and Syria, Townhall (Mar. 17, 2016), at http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2016/03/17/breaking-isis-genocide-n2135279 Google Scholar.

⁹ In defense of christians, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman KRG Representative to the U.S. Speaks at the 2015 IDC Convention, Youtube (Oct. 22, 2015), at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWL0f4MZXi0.

¹⁰ Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq, Eur. Parl. Ass. Res. 2091(Jan. 27, 2016), available at http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-en.asp?FileID=22482&lang=en.

¹¹ Joint Motion for a Resolution, Eur. Parl. Doc. RC1085712EN (Feb. 3, 2016), available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fNONSGML%2bMOTION%2bP8-RC-2016-0149%2b0%2bDOC%2bPDF%2bV0%2f%2fEN.

¹² The White House Press Release, Press Briefing by Deputy Spokesperson Mark C. Toner (Mar. 16, 2016), at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/03/254764.htm [hereinafter Toner Press Briefing].

¹³ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Dec. 9, 1948, 78 UNTS 277 [hereinafter Genocide Convention].

¹⁴ Senate Consideration of Treaty Document 81-15 (Feb. 19, 1986), Congress.Gov, at https://www.congress.gov/treaty-document/81st-congress/15 (last visited July 1, 2016) (passed by a vote of 83 to 11); Roberts, Steven V., Reagan Signs Bill Ratifying U.N. Genocide Pact, N.Y. Times (Nov. 4, 1988), at http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/05/opinion/reagan-signs-bill-ratifying-un-genocide-pact.html Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Memorandum on Genocide and Darfur from William H. Taft, IV, Legal Adviser, U.S. Dep’t of State, to The Deputy Secretary (June 25, 2004), at 2, available at http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB356/20040625_darfur.PDF [hereinafter Darfur Memorandum].

¹⁶ Id.

¹⁷ See Triffterer, Otto, Genocide, Its Particular Intent to Destroy in Whole or in Part the Group as Such, 14 Leiden J. Int’l L. 399, 399 (2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁸ Genocide Convention,, supra note 13, Art. 2.

¹⁹ Id.

²⁰ Murphy, Sean D., Department of State Legal Analysis of 1994 Genocide in Rwanda, 96 AJIL 258, 260 (2002)Google Scholar (quoting a newly released 1994 State Department memorandum relating to genocide in Rwanda).

²¹ Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (Bosn. & Herz. v. Serb. & Montenegro), Judgment, 2007 ICJ 140 (Feb. 26) [hereinafter ICJ Genocide Judgment].

²² Id., para. 186 (“‘Killing’ must be intentional, as must ‘causing serious bodily or mental harm.’ Mental elements are made explicit in paragraphs (c) and (d) of Article II by the words ‘deliberately’ and ‘intended,’ quite apart from the implications of the words ‘inflicting’ and ‘imposing’; and forcible transfer too requires deliberate intentional acts. The acts, in the words of the [International Law Commission], are by their very nature conscious, intentional or volitional acts.”) (citation omitted).

²³ Id., para. 187.

²⁴ Darfur Memorandum, supra note 15; see also Crook, supra note 3, at 267 (“[W]e concluded, I concluded, that genocide has been committed in Darfur.”) (statement of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell).

²⁵ Wintour, Patrick, Ministers Criticized for Refusing to Act on Isis Genocide Motion, The Guardian (Apr. 21, 2016), at http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/21/uk-government-criticised-for-refusing-to-act-on-motion-accusing-isis-of-genocide Google Scholar.

²⁶ Kerry Remarks, supra note 2.

²⁷ Id.

²⁸ Id.

²⁹ The White House Press Release, Press Briefing by Press Secretary Josh Earnest (Feb. 4, 2016), at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/02/04/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-242016.

³⁰ Toner Press Briefing, supra note 12.

³¹ Id.; see also Hudson, John, Obama Administration Declares Islamic State Genocide Against Christians, Foreign Policy (Mar. 17, 2016), at http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/17/obama-administration-declares-islamic-state-genocide-against-christians/ Google Scholar (“When pressed about the usefulness of the declaration, [a senior State Department official] said the U.S. believes it is important to’document the history of what’s happened to these innocent people,’ formally recognize their suffering, galvanize the international community to help defeat the Islamic State and con tribute to the effort to document and analyze the group’s atrocities.”).

³² Darfur Memorandum, supra note 15, at 3 (“Based on the available facts, a determination that genocide has occurred in Darfur would have no immediate legal—as opposed to moral, political, or policy—consequences for the United States. In prior years, the Department rejected arguments by some human rights advocates... that would impose a legal obligation on all Contracting Parties to take particular measures to ‘prevent’ genocide in areas outside of their territory.”); Memorandum from Conrad Harper, Legal Adviser, U.S. Dep’t of State, to The Secretary (May 20, 1994), at 2, available at http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/rw052194.pdf (“A [U.S. government] statement that acts of genocide have occurred would not have any particular legal consequences. Under the Convention, the prosecution of persons charged with genocide is the responsibility of the competent courts in the state where the acts took place or an international penal tribunal (none has yet been established); the U.S. has no criminal jurisdiction over acts of genocide occurring within Rwanda unless they are committed by U.S. citizens or they fall under another criminal provision of U.S. law (such as those relating to acts of terrorism for which there is a basis for U.S. jurisdiction).”).

³³ See, e.g., Heieck, John, Daesh and the Duty to Prevent Genocide, Opinio Juris (Apr. 6, 2016), at http://opiniojuris.org/2016/04/06/daesh-and-the-duty-to-prevent-genocide/ Google Scholar.

³⁴ ICJ Genocide Judgment, supra note 21.

³⁵ Id. According to the Court, a state’s obligations to act to prevent genocide “arise[s] at the moment instant that the State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed.” Id., para. 431.

³⁶ See generally Heieck, supra note 33.

³⁷ Id. (endorsing a resolution that would “inter alia, refer the situations in Iraq and Syria to the International Criminal Court, impose arms embargos on Daesh and related groups, and authorize the deployment of a UN peace-enforcing force to the areas in which Daesh is operating”).

³⁸ UN Press Release, At Security Council, Ban Urges Action to End Violence Against Religious, Ethnic Minorities in Middle East (Mar. 27, 2015), at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50439#.V5kOJEB95hA.