Advocates: Law on humanity crimes needed in US

By DENNIS CONRAD – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States should put muscle behind its denunciation of human rights abuses around the world by making the broad offense known as a "crime against humanity" illegal under U.S. law, witnesses said Tuesday.

Along with genocide and war crimes, crimes against humanity are among the most serious crimes under international law. In brief, crimes against humanity consist of certain inhumane acts, such as enslavement, extermination, rape and other forms of torture, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.

Testifying in a congressional hearing on the subject, advocates for victims of violence in Sudan's Darfur region said it was embarrassing for the United States that it had no way to punish those responsible for the Darfur mayhem, which the Bush administration has described as genocide.

With the current lack of legislation, the United States is unable to prosecute offenders when they come to visit, live or work in the country.

"There is much that must be done to end the carnage in Darfur," said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary human rights and law subcommittee. "Part of the solution is arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators. Otherwise, they will continue to act with impunity, and victims will feel they have no recourse but to resort to violence themselves."

During five years of conflict, up to 300,000 people have been killed and about 2.5 million driven from their homes. Rapes, enslavement and other war crimes have been rampant.

Much of Tuesday's hearing was devoted to experts explaining crucial legal differences between genocide, which already is against U.S. law, and crimes against humanity, which are considered easier to prosecute because they have a lower threshold under international law for identification as a crime.

Crimes against humanity do not necessarily translate into a charge of genocide, which, the experts said, must be done with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part.

"The specific intent requirement of group destruction is dauntingly difficult to establish," said Diane Orentlicher, a co-director of American University's Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

So far, at least nine nations — Australia, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Argentina and Britain — have defined and incorporated crimes against humanity in their criminal codes.

Gayle Smith, a specialist on African affairs for the National Security Council under former President Bill Clinton, said for efforts to be effective in holding perpetrators to account, they must be unable to find a haven "in any country on Earth."

Holding War Criminals Accountable

SOURCE: AP/Michael Kooren

During her testimony, CAP's Gayle Smith praised the war crimes trial brought against former Liberian President Charles Taylor (above), but said more needed to be done to end crimes against humanity such as the genocide in Darfur.

June 25, 2008

“We must focus on legislation not lamentation; we must not just look in horror [on Darfur],” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law at Tuesday’s hearing, “From Nuremberg to Darfur: Accountability for Crimes Against Humanity.” Testimony, including that of Gayle Smith, Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress Action Fund and co-chair of the ENOUGH project, focused on fulfilling Nuremberg ideals of accountability by making crimes against humanity illegal in the United States.

Crimes against humanity are any acts of persecution or large-scale atrocities against a specific population, including but not limited to torture, rape, murder, and enslavement. Unfortunately, war criminals cannot simply be deported to their home countries and tried there for their crimes since many of those nations’ infrastructures and judicial systems are in a state of collapse. Yet since these crimes are not illegal in the United States, the perpetrators usually have to be tried for a much more inconsequential crime than they actually committed.

Smith, along with the other speakers, argued for legislation that would make crimes against humanity illegal in the United States, in order to “make sure America is on the right side of history.” She lauded Former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s trial for war crimes at the Hague and the establishment of the International Criminal Court, but declared these efforts insufficient. Only with sustained and robust peace processes in Darfur and other warring African regions, protection for civilians, and most importantly, accountability, will the perpetrators of crimes against humanity be stopped.

Smith outlined four key reasons why we should focus on accountability: it is the right thing to do and reinforces the United States’ moral foundations; it would strengthen the structure and influence of the rule of law; it is in our national interests since crimes against humanity often lead to collapses of states, violence, and instability; and accountability can be a “sledgehammer” with which to uphold the law and bring crimes against humanity to an end.

Smith also encouraged the United States to pressure China to help in Darfur since its dependence on oil in the Sudan has helped fund the genocide. “They don’t want to be seen…as championing the cause of genocide,” she said, citing the fact that this summer’s Olympics were already being renamed the “Darfur Olympics.”

Diane Orentlicher, professor at American University, and a leading expert on international criminal tribunals, admired the United States’ leadership in the Nuremberg trials and Genocide Accountability Act of 2007, but like Smith, she said it was not enough. She called it “desperately important” that there be a law that forbids all mass atrocities, not just genocide. Crimes against humanity are inhumane acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.

Co-founder and president of Team Darfur, Joey Cheek, emphasized that mass killings and atrocities in the Sudan are a result of conscious and willful decisions as opposed to a natural disaster. He demanded more than sympathy and money.

“What I have come to realize is that it takes much more than awareness,” Cheek said. “In the face of crimes such as these, people must be willing to fight back.” He called for an Olympic Truce, in which world leaders would use considerable effort to create and promote peace during the time of the Olympics. In addition to a renewed peace process, Cheek mentioned increased humanitarian assistance and the deployment of peacekeepers.

“I honestly believed that the people who run the world we live in today will not allow this outrage to continue, if only they know about it,” Hari said.

Read testimony from Gayle Smith to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law.

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