Political Quotes

“S. 888, the Genocide Accountability Act, is the first legislation produced by the Senate Judiciary Committee's new Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, which I chair. It is bipartisan legislation that I introduced with Senator Tom Coburn, ranking member of the Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee, Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator John Cornyn. The Genocide Accountability Act would close a legal loophole that prevents the U.S. Justice Department from prosecuting individuals who have committed genocide. Under current law, genocide is only a crime if it is committed within the United States or by a U.S. national outside the United States. The Genocide Accountability Act would amend 18 U.S.C. 1091, the Genocide Convention Implementation Act, to allow prosecution of non-U.S. nationals who are brought into or found in the United States for genocide committed outside the United States. I recently received a letter from David Scheffer, U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes from 1997 to 2001, which makes clear the impact that the Genocide Accountability Act could have.”