Issue Position: Human Rights

Issue Position

Issue Position: Human Rights

America represents a moral mission of freedom and democracy. That includes human rights at home and abroad. We must stand up against injustice and violence, from the genocide in Darfur to human trafficking. And we must ensure that we do not violate these standards ourselves in our treatment of prisoners and detainees. As Americans, we must advocate for and exemplify humane standards of treatment of people throughout the world.

Treatment of Prisoners and Detainees

As we search every corner of our nation and every corner of the world for danger and threats, we must never lose sight of our commitment to a rule of law, nor of our commitment to a foreign policy based on established values and established standards of international conduct.

To fight terrorism we need intelligence that is reliable and acquired humanely, under clear standards understood by all our fighting men and women. To do differently not only offends our values as Americans, but undermines our war effort. Subjecting prisoners to abuse leads to bad intelligence and endangers U.S. troops who might be captured by the enemy. And prisoner abuses exact on us a terrible toll in the war of ideas, because the cruel actions of a few darken the reputation of our country in the eyes of millions. American values should win against all others in any war of ideas, and we must not let prisoner abuse tarnish our reputation. I support an American prohibition against cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment. The Bush Administration has held that this does not legally apply to foreigners held overseas. This means that America is the only country in the world that asserts a legal right to engage in cruel and inhumane treatment. The enemy we fight has no respect for human life or human rights. They do not deserve our sympathy. But this is not about who they are. This is about who we are. These are the values that distinguish us from our enemies, and we must never allow our enemies to take those values away.

Genocide in Darfur

As an original co-sponsor of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, I have been coming to the Senate floor nearly every week to ensure that we remember what is happening in Sudan. It has been years since the Bush Administration called the situation what it really is: a genocide. Under the 1948 U.N. Convention on Genocide, our nation is committed to imposing effective penalties on the killers and working to stop the violence. Yet as an estimated 200,000 people have been killed and over 2 million men, women and children have been displaced, the international community has not done enough to pressure the Government of Sudan to stop the violence. The crisis in Sudan is simply too great for us to ignore. I will continue to speak out on the Senate floor and in other forums to press our nation and our allies to take further action.

I also have introduced the Sudan Disclosure and Enforcement Act. Modeled after the fight to defeat apartheid in South Africa, this Act will help provide the Administration and all Americans with the information needed to use our investment portfolios as a nonviolent tool for peace in Darfur. It will establish real financial consequences for those companies that bear some complicity in the bloodshed by supporting the murderous Sudanese regime. Many American individuals and institutions want their investment choices to reflect their values. This is one small way we can help them add their voices to the call for peace and security in Darfur.

Child Soldiers

As Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, I'm deeply concerned about the existence of child soldiers.

The use of children in armed conflict is one of the worst forms of exploitation. It robs the innocent of their youth. That's why I have introduced a bill called the Child Soldiers Prevention Act. This bill would prohibit the U.S. Government from giving military assistance to governments which use child soldiers or support paramilitary groups or militias which use child soldiers, unless the assistance is used to help end the practice. The bill emphasizes demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers into the community because often they have been traumatized at a young age. The bill enjoys wide, bi-partisan support in the Senate.

Human Trafficking

As the chair of the Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee, I have been a leader in the fight against human trafficking. This modern-day slavery takes many forms, ranging from the sex trafficking of children, to the exploitation of domestic workers, to the placement of factory and farm workers into conditions of involuntary servitude.

Human trafficking is a global phenomenon whose reach has not escaped the United States and even Illinois. I will continue to work with immigrant and justice groups to end this insidious form of exploitation.

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