Durbin Holds Hearing on Crimes Against Humanity

Press Release

Durbin Holds Hearing on Crimes Against Humanity

United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today chaired the first-ever congressional hearing on crimes against humanity. The hearing, "From Nuremberg to Darfur: Accountability for Crimes Against Humanity," discussed ways to hold accountable perpetrators of crimes against humanity under U.S. law.

"The United States led the first prosecutions for crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg trials, following the Second World War," Durbin said. "These crimes, however, are still taking place. Our promise to hold accountable those who commit the most unspeakable crimes will ring hollow unless we lead the world in punishing those responsible for the gravest human rights violations."
Crimes against humanity are acts of murder, enslavement, torture, rape, extermination, ethnic cleansing or arbitrary detention committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilian populations.

Despite longstanding U.S. support for the prosecution of crimes against humanity perpetrated in World War II, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone, among other places, there is no U.S. law prohibiting crimes against humanity. As a result, the U.S. government is unable to prosecute perpetrators of these crimes found in our country - in contrast to other human rights violations including genocide and torture.

Even with strong U.S. support for holding perpetrators accountable, crimes against humanity are still taking place. A significant portion of today's hearing dealt with the ongoing crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more driven from their homes.

"There are many things we can and should be doing to end the carnage in Darfur," Durbin said. "Part of the solution is to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of these horrific crimes. Otherwise they will continue to act with impunity."

In the hearing, Durbin commended the President for supporting efforts of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute the perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Darfur. Recently, the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, reported that massive atrocities are ongoing and "the entire Darfur region is a crime scene."

Witnesses at today's hearing included Daoud Hari, author of "The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur;" Gayle Smith, Co-Chair of the ENOUGH Project; Diane Orentlicher, Professor of Law at American University; and Joey Cheek, U.S. Olympic speedskater and founder of Team Darfur.

Today's hearing was the eighth hearing of Durbin's Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. The subcommittee, created in January of 2007, is the first congressional committee to focus solely on issue of human rights.

The subcommittee has held hearings on genocide, child soldiers, human trafficking, the "material support" bar to asylum, rape as a weapon of war, global internet freedom and U.S. enforcement of human rights law.

In addition to the hearings, Durbin has introduced five bills dealing with issues covered in the subcommittee's hearings. Two dealing with the genocide in Darfur have been signed into law - the Genocide Accountability Act and the Sudan Divestment Act.

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