U.S. CONGRESS HOLDS "FROM NUREMBERG TO DARFUR: ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY" HEARING

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.06.2008 17:20 GMT+04:00

The Armenian Assembly of America applauded Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL)
and Ranking Member Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) for holding hearing on
Capitol Hill entitled, "From Nuremberg to Darfur: Accountability
for Crimes Against Humanity," scheduled by the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, the AAA told PanARMENIAN.Net.

In his opening statement, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said that "The
United States led the first prosecutions for crimes against humanity
in the Nuremberg trials, following the Second World War. 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."

Durbin stated that "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."

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), the Ranking Member of the full Judiciary
Committee expressed the importance of this hearing stating that
"genocide regrettably has become a common practice."

"The Assembly commends Chairman Durbin and this Subcommittee for taking
a leadership role on these critically important issues," said Executive
Director Bryan Ardouny. "Only with constant pressure, vigilance,
and genocide education awareness, will we be able to eradicate the
scourge of genocide and ensure that those responsible for committing
such heinous crimes are held accountable," Ardouny continued.

"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," noted Durbin in his statement.

At the hearing, speaking about the ongoing genocide in Darfur,
Gayle Smith Co-Chair, ENOUGH Project, said "To be truly effective,
the international community must fashion an unbreakable chain of
accountability – one that ensures that the perpetrators of genocide
and crimes against humanity can neither seek nor secure safe haven
in any country on earth. To be truly effective, the international
community must also ensure that its stated support for accountability
is backed by meaningful pressure on those who attempt to evade it."

Also testifying at the hearing were Daoud Hari, Author of "The
Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur"; Diane Orentlicher,
Professor, Washington College of Law, American University and Joey
Cheek, Co-founder and President, Team Darfur.

In the Assembly’s written testimony, Ardouny noted that "The United
States has, through its filing with the International Court of Justice
in 1951, concerning the United Nations Genocide Convention, squarely
acknowledged the Armenian Genocide" and urged the Subcommittee "to
continue to actively generate and introduce new mechanisms to better
protect potential victims from future genocides and the consequences
of genocide denial."

Moreover, Ardouny stressed the importance for the U.S. to continue to
build on the proud legacy of Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, as well as
the late Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA), House Foreign Affairs Chairman
and House Congressional Caucus on Human Rights Co-Chair, in their
defense of human rights and action to address man’s inhumanity to man.

Unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts, Actress and Activist
Mia Farrow submitted written testimony for the record. The Armenian
National Committee of America, Center for Justice and Accountability,
Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch and Save Darfur Coalition also
submitted testimony.