U.S. Congress holds "From Nuremberg to Darfur: Accountability for Crimes Against Humanity" hearing

PanARMENIAN.Net - 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.