Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

By Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. Coburn):

S. 1472. A bill to establish a section within the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice to enforce human rights laws, to make technical and conforming amendments to criminal and immigration laws pertaining to human rights violations, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2009, which I am introducing today. This narrowly-tailored, bipartisan legislation would make it easier for the Justice Department to hold accountable human rights abusers who seek safe haven in our country.

I would like to thank the lead Republican cosponsor of the Human Rights Enforcement Act, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. This bill is a product of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. I am the chairman of this subcommittee and Senator Coburn is its ranking member.

The end of the last century was marked by horrific human rights abuses in places such as Bosnia and Rwanda. The early years of this century have seen ongoing atrocities being committed in, among other places, Darfur and Burma.

While a growing number of perpetrators of human rights abuses have been held accountable in international, hybrid and state tribunals, a much larger number have escaped accountability for their crimes. Some of these human rights violators have fled to the U.S.

How we as a country treat suspected perpetrators of serious human rights abuses in the U.S. sends an important message to the world about our commitment to human rights and the rule of law. It also signals to perpetrators of human rights abuses considering seeking refuge in the U.S. what treatment they can expect to receive.

The U.S. has been a leader in holding the perpetrators of serious human rights violations accountable for their crimes. Over 60 years ago, following the Holocaust, we led the efforts to prosecute Nazi perpetrators at the Nuremberg trials. We have also supported the prosecution of human rights crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

In some circumstances, the U.S. Government has also made valiant efforts to hold accountable human rights violators who have found safe haven in our country, but more must be done. Federal law enforcement reportedly has over 1,000 open cases involving suspected perpetrators of serious human rights abuses from almost 90 countries who are now in the U.S. While no one knows the total number of human rights abusers living in the U.S., the number of open cases presumably represents only a small portion of the total number of such perpetrators.

In the last Congress, the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law held hearings which identified loopholes in the law that hinder effective human rights enforcement. In order to close some of these loopholes and make it easier to prosecute human rights abuses, Senator Coburn and I introduced the Genocide Accountability Act, the Child Soldiers Accountability Act and the Trafficking in Persons Act, legislation passed unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush that denies safe haven in the United States to perpetrators of genocide, child soldier recruitment and use, and human trafficking.

We also examined the U.S. Government agencies which bear responsibility for investigating human rights abusers and how to increase the likelihood that human rights violators will be held accountable.

There are two offices within the Justice Department that investigate and prosecute suspected human rights abusers. The Office of Special Investigations, established by Attorney General Richard Civiletti in 1979, was assigned:

[T]he primary responsibility for detecting, investigating, and, where appropriate, taking legal action to deport, denaturalize, or prosecute any individual who was admitted as an alien into or became a naturalized citizen of the United States and who has assisted the Nazis by persecuting any person because of race, religion, national origin, or political opinion.

Over the years, the Office of Special Investigations, also known as OSI, has led the way in investigating, denaturalizing and removing World War II-era participants in genocide and other Nazi crimes. I want to commend OSI for its outstanding work tracking down and bringing to justice Nazi war criminals who have found safe haven in our country. Since 1979, OSI has successfully prosecuted 107 Nazis.

Just this year, OSI has succeeded in deporting two Nazi war criminals. Josias Kumpf, who immigrated to the United States in 1956 and lived in Racine, Wisconsin, was a guard at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany and the Trawniki Labor Camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Kumpf allegedly participated in the extermination of 8,000 Jews in one day at the Trawniki camp. OSI Director Eli Rosenbaum said, ``The removal of Josias Kumpf to Austria has achieved a significant measure of justice on behalf of the victims of Nazi inhumanity and it reflects the unswerving commitment of the U.S. government to continuing the quest for justice.''

OSI also deported John Demjanjuk to Germany, where last week he was charged with involvement in the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Demjanjuk came to the United States in 1952 and lived in Seven Hills, Ohio. During World War II, Demjanjuk allegedly served as a guard at a number of Nazi concentration camps. Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, said, ``The removal to Germany of John Demjanjuk is an historic moment in the federal government's efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. Mr. Demjanjuk, a confirmed former Nazi death camp guard, denied to thousands the very freedoms he enjoyed for far too long in the United States.''

Due to OSI's outstanding work, the U.S. is the only country in the world to
receive an ``A'' rating from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. I especially want to commend Eli Rosenbaum, who has worked at OSI for more than two decades and has been OSI's director since 1995. OSI's success is due in large measure to Mr. Rosenbaum's leadership and personal dedication to holding Nazi perpetrators accountable.

In 2004, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act further strengthened the Office of Special Investigations by statutorily authorizing it and expanding its jurisdiction to include serious human rights crimes committed after World War II.

The Domestic Security Section, which was established more recently, seeks to investigate and prosecute major human rights violators and has jurisdiction over the criminal laws relating to torture, genocide, war crimes, the use or recruitment of child soldiers, and other atrocities. In 2008, the Domestic Security Section and the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida obtained the first federal conviction for torture against Chuckie Taylor, son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, for committing torture in Liberia when he served as the head of the Anti-Terrorist Unit. Taylor and other Anti-Terrorist Unit members engaged in horrific acts of torture, including shocking victims with an electric device and burning victims with molten plastic, lit cigarettes, scalding water, candle wax and an iron. Then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey said, ``Today's conviction provides a measure of justice to those who were victimized by the reprehensible acts of Charles Taylor Jr. and his associates. It sends a powerful message to human rights violators around the world that, when we can, we will hold them fully accountable for their crimes.''

I commend the Office of Special Investigations and the Domestic Security Section for their successes in holding human rights abusers accountable.

The Human Rights Enforcement Act would seek to build on this important work by creating a new office in the Criminal Division that would focus exclusively on enforcing human rights laws. My bill would combine the Office of Special Investigations, which has significant experience in investigating and denaturalizing human rights abusers, with the Domestic Security Section, which has broad jurisdiction over human rights crimes. Consolidating these two sections would allow limited law enforcement resources to be used more effectively and ensure that one section in the Justice Department has the necessary expertise and jurisdiction to investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute, denaturalize or deport perpetrators of serious human rights crimes.

The Human Rights Enforcement Act also includes a number of technical an conforming amendments, including: technical changes to the criminal law on genocide, 18 U.S.C. 1091, that the Justice Department requested in 2007 to make it easier to prosecute perpetrators of genocide; clarifying that the immigration provisions of the Child Soldiers Accountability Act apply to offenses committed before the bill's enactment; a conforming amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act required by the enactment of the Genocide Accountability Act; and a conforming amendment to the material support statute, made necessary by the enactment of the Genocide Accountability Act and the Child Soldiers Accountability Act, making it illegal to provide material support to genocide and the use or recruitment of child soldiers.

The United States has a proud tradition of leadership in the promotion of human rights and the world watches our steps in this field closely. By holding perpetrators of serious human rights abusers found in the U.S. accountable, we will demonstrate our commitment to upholding the human rights principles we have long advocated and discourage human rights violators from fleeing to the U.S.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record

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