ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY COMMENDED SENATORS
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
April 3 2007
The Armenian Assembly of America commended Senator Richard Durbin
(D-IL), along with Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK), Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT)
and John Cornyn (R-TX) as legislation, which they introduced, had
passed the U.S. Senate last week. The Genocide Accountability Act,
S. 888, closes a legal loophole that prevented the U.S. Justice
Department from punishing perpetrators of genocide who find safe
haven in the United States.
"There is no safe haven for the hundreds of thousands of Sudanese
facing genocide in Darfur and yet our country is providing a safe
haven for their killers," said Senator Durbin, who chairs the Senate
Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. "The current
loophole in our genocide laws has real-life consequences. While
genocide rages in Darfur, the United States must commit to holding
those guilty of genocide accountable."
"The extraterritorial jurisdiction contained within the Genocide
Accountability Act upholds the spirit of the United Nations Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide," said
Assembly Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian.
"We commend Senators Durbin, Coburn, Leahy and Cornyn for bringing
much needed attention to this important human rights issue,"
Hovnanian added.
The legislation allows foreign nationals, who enter America, to
be prosecuted for committing the crime of genocide outside of the
United States.
"In America we are blessed with the most effective and just legal
system in the world. It is contrary to our system of justice to allow
perpetrators of genocide to go free without fear of prosecution,"
said Senator Coburn, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Human
Rights and the Law. "Fundamentally, we must decide if genocide is a
bad enough crime, no matter where it happens, that it warrants the
same treatment as terrorism-related crimes."
This is the first piece of legislation to be produced by the
Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, which has jurisdiction
over all human rights laws and policies and follows a hearing held in
February entitled "Genocide and the Rule of Law", where the Armenian
Assembly submitted testimony. The Genocide Accountability Act has been
endorsed by the Save Darfur Coalition, Genocide Intervention Network,
American Jewish World Service, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian
National Committee of America, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch,
Alliance for Justice, Refugees International, and ENOUGH.