AAG Breuer Testifies on Human Rights Violators 
Office: name: Criminal Division

AAG Breuer testifies before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee regarding human rights violators. Photograph by Eli Rosenbaum for The Department of Justice 

Today, Lanny A. Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law about how the Department works to hold human rights violators accountable for their crimes.  He also outlined plans to enhance these efforts by merging two sections of the Criminal Division.

At the onset, AAG Breuer outlined ways in which the Department brings human rights violators to justice.  The first starts at our borders, where we work with the Department of Homeland Security to prevent these perpetrators from entering our country.  If a suspect has entered the country, and we can't prosecute them in our own courts, we seek to capture and extradite them so they can stand trial abroad.  Finally, when evidence implicates someone in genocide, war crimes, torture or other human rights violations, the federal government moves swiftly to investigate and take the appropriate legal action.

For example, AAG Breuer highlighted the prosecution of Roy M. Belfast aka “Chuckie Taylor,” the first person charged with violating the U.S. stature prohibiting torture.  Federal prosecutors proved that Belfast, who was born in the United States and is the son of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, commanded a Liberian paramilitary organization that routinely and brutally tortured their enemies.  In January 2009, Belfast was sentenced to 97 years in prison. 

Immigration litigation is another powerful tool to bring human rights violators to justice. In May 2009, former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk was removed to Germany. Upon arrival in Germany, Demjanjuk was arrested and charged with having been an accessory to the murder of more than 29,000 Jews at a concentration camp.

Breuer noted that while the Department is proud of its efforts to prosecute human rights violators and build global capacity to address these atrocities, he said the Department can and will do more to pursue justice and achieve deterrence in these cases. 

Specifically, he announced he has recommended to the Attorney General that the Department's already outstanding efforts in the area of human rights would be enhanced by a merger of the Criminal Division's Domestic Security Section and the Office of Special Investigation into a new section with responsibility for human rights enforcement, MEJA/SMTJ cases, and alien-smuggling and related matters.  That new section would be called the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. 

AAG Breuer testified that the Attorney General has indicated his support for this change and the Department’s strong commitment to enforcing human rights, and he expects to move forward with it, after necessary approvals from the Office of Management and Budget and notifications to Congress.     

Holding human rights violators accountable is integral to the Department’s mission, and requires close coordination and cooperation throughout the federal government and with our law enforcement partners abroad.  AAG Breuer and the entire Criminal Division are committed to strengthening the rule of law and foster respect for human rights both here in the United States and around the world.

Read AAG Breuer's full testimony. (PDF)