Leveraging U.S. Security Assistance in Support of Accountability for and Prevention of Human Rights Violations
Remarks
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Welcome everyone – it’s a pleasure to see so many colleagues from State, USAID, DoD, and DOJ, as well as the NGO and academic communities. And many thanks to Nancy Lindborg and all her staff at USIP who have worked so hard to bring you here and make this event a success
This workshop is organized around a basic question: What can we do to assist a partner who wants to do the right thing?
The State Leahy Law provides that when assistance is denied to a foreign security force unit because of credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights, the United States “shall, to the maximum extent practicable, assist the foreign government in taking effective measures to bring the responsible members of the security forces to justice.”
But how should we do this? What resources do different agencies have that could be brought to bear to secure a real investigation and an effective prosecution when warranted? And, further, what else can we do to help a partner government prevent the violation from occurring in the first place? Is it just more and better training? Or are there institutional changes and structures we could help partners put in place to deter future violations?
Many of you are engaging, or supporting engagements, with partner governments and partner security force units every day. Some of you may have asked the same question – or even found good answers. That’s one of our goals for this event: to share best practices and lessons learned that can help guide future efforts. Of course, some of you may be well-versed in your own agency’s efforts, but less familiar with complementary efforts of other agencies. This workshop will help us develop an inventory of accountability and prevention resources – and ultimately establish a Community of Interest. So our hope is that this exchange will not be a one-time event, but will serve as the kick-off for more exchanges about assisting foreign partners who seek to prevent or redress human rights violations.
In this context, assistance means helping partner governments develop professional, effective military and police units—units that share our values, that respect the rights of others, including those they perceive as adversaries. But an effective approach must extend beyond security forces, so we also need to help partners strengthen judicial mechanisms. Judges and prosecutors should work alongside military and police units in adopting a more strategic, comprehensive approach to security. And through all this, we continue to stress the role of civil society in encouraging accountability, oversight and abuse prevention.
Ultimately, this kind of security assistance strengthens our own efforts to combat terrorism and prevent violent extremism. But to do this, we need to work together to develop operational models – contingency plans, if you will – so that when a partner government asks for help, we don’t just shuffle our feet and shrug our shoulders. We will be ready to ask the right questions, reach out to the most appropriate agencies and organizations, and take carefully considered actions to enhance the effectiveness of our security partnerships.
Today we intend to lay the groundwork so that we are ready to assist partners who want to do the right thing, whether that means investigating a violation and taking the appropriate remediation measures, or adopting a forward-looking approach to prevent future violations altogether
We are looking forward to some great discussions with this diverse group. To start them off, let me introduce you to one of our nation’s foremost proponents of effective, rights-respecting security force partnerships – a gentleman who proudly gave his name to the Leahy law—Senator Patrick Leahy. You may know him better, though, as St. Patrick, patron saint of human rights defenders, rabble rousers, revolutionaries, and riff raff of all sorts; a saint to some but not to all, for he is equally the bane of dictators, caliphs, tyrants, and czars. His name is invoked in the prayers of human rights crusaders and cursed in the tirades of oppressors. Indeed, St. Patrick’s deeds are so legendary, he even earned a cameo in the Batman movie. We stand here in a room full of heroes, but Pat Leahy alone stood up to the Joker. It is my distinct honor to present our patron saint of human rights and responsible security assistance, Senator Leahy.
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Source: Dept. Of State – Releases
Collected Department Releases: Leveraging U.S. Security Assistance in Support of Accountability for and Prevention of Human Rights Violations
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