STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1268

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.C.R. No. 73

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 73 entitled:

 

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION DECLARING APRIL 24 AS A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE IN RECOGNITION AND COMMEMORATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to declare April 24 as a day of remembrance in recognition and commemoration of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from ten individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that during the chaos of World War I between the years 1915 and 1923, approximately 1,500,000 Armenian men, women, and children living within the Ottoman Empire's borders were killed in a brutal genocide.  Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were forced to flee to foreign countries after being stripped of their possessions, national identities, and homeland.  This is documented as the first instance of genocide in the twentieth century.  This measure reflects H.R. No. 192, H.D. 1 (Regular Session of 2009), which declared April 24 as a day of remembrance of those who perished in the Armenian genocide of 1915 to ensure that this inhumanity is never forgotten or repeated.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 73 and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Higher Education and the Arts.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair