ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming a leader in the fight, nina shea, as she updates onsis' christian genocide and the policies ahead. [applause] nina: thank you so much, bridget. i want to thank heritage and the policy institute for inviting me. when they did, we had no idea it would be such a momentus week for this topic of christian genocide in the middle east. yesterday at 9:00 a.m. eastern, secretary kerry took the podium and asserted "in my judgment daesh, another word for isis, is responsible for genocide for groups under its control -- including yazidis, christians, and shia muslims. they are genocidal by self ideology, actions, in what it says and does." that is the official u.s. designation. he goes on to give a talk about that. i encourage you to look it up. it is a genocide designation that is historic, surprising, important, and possibly of utmost significance. that is what i want to talk to you about. it is, as bridget said, the second time in u.s. history when the u.s. designated genocide while it was still going on. the other time was when secretary powel

the main speaker is the director of the hudson institute center for religious freedom, nina shea. >> i want to welcome you to our monthly conservative women's lunch. very pleased and honored to have a distinguished speaker. especially so in this particular week. it has been very important in terms of the united states taking a strong moral stand against isis. on monday, the united states helped representatives unanimously passed a resolution condemning the campaign against christians and religious minorities in the middle east as humanity, war crimes, and genocide. it called on governments to do the same. john kerry recognized that isis is waging a genocide against , christians, and shiites in the areas under its control. this is only the second time in the united states' government history they have condemned and ongoing genocide. there was some doubt that the united states would include christians. our colleagues have been writing about this for several months. today, we have a tireless warrior for this cause. she has been tireless in helping document the christian genocide, and ha

look on my website at hudson.org under nina shea and i write for national review quite frequent late will often put in those pieces, links to more information, links to petitions that we need signatures for. until yesterday, we had a petition from the knights of columbus that got over 140,000 signatures including a lot of dignitaries. that was part of the pressure because all of this builds pressure. there was the fortenberry amendment that passed unanimously monday and that built pressure. there was the press conference we had last week with the knights of columbus for its report and that old pressure. the european parliament in january past with strong socialist support, a resolution also calling for the designation of genocide on behalf of the european parliament for christians and other minorities. all of that was building pressure and that's why there was this delay or the state department would have just declared a genocide back in october. that would have been the end of it. that would have been very hurtful for the other minorities. basically, by so -- by selecting one, you a

declaration of genocidal attacks against religious minorities in the middle east. .e will year from nina shea secretary kerry made that announcement yesterday in a news conference at the state department. sec. kerry: good morning, everybody. da2014, the terrorist group seize territory in iraq, overrunning cities and committing atrocities. the united states responded by renouncing these acts and taking coordinated actions to counter them. year,tember of that president obama mobilized an international coalition, now 66-members strong to hold and river the momentum of daesh. that is what we are doing. in 18 months, coalition airstrikes have helped to liberate key cities and towns. the terrorists out of 40% of the territory they once controlled in iraq and 20% in syria. excuse me. we have degraded their leadership, attacks and their revenue sources, disrupted their supply lines. currently, we are engaged in a diplomatic initiative aimed at trying to end the war in syria. .hat civil war fuels daesh doing what we are doing now, we are taking to further isolate, defeat them. we working to stop the s