Why Is This Idea Important?
We want to create an intersecting system of two databases to help implement the Leahy Amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act and Defense Appropriations Act by making that information available to the public. As stated on Senator Leahy’s website, “The Leahy Law makes it clear that when credible evidence of human rights violations exists, U.S. aid must stop. But, it provides the
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Why Is This Idea Important?
We want to create an intersecting system of two databases to help implement the Leahy Amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act and Defense Appropriations Act by making that information available to the public. As stated on Senator Leahy’s website, “The Leahy Law makes it clear that when credible evidence of human rights violations exists, U.S. aid must stop. But, it provides the necessary flexibility to allow the U.S. to advance its foreign policy objectives in these countries. The law gives the Secretary of State the authority to determine when the law applies. In addition, it gives foreign governments an incentive to correct the problem: U.S. aid can resume if they bring to justice people who commit such crimes.”
To better implement this law, Americans and the world community should have access to an open database of all foreign military units who receive U.S. military aid and/or training. In addition, the State Department's Annual Human Rights reports should be indexed to note those military units that are implicated in any "gross violation of Human Rights." The intersection of these two databases should trigger the implementation of the Leahy Amendment and thus begin a process that will press for justice by withdrawing further U.S. aid and training from the unit involved.
Creating the databases for government use is not enough. These databases need to be made public, so both U.S. citizens and foreign military units can have access. U.S. citizens should know what military units are being funded by the U.S. government and keep our country accountable for its spending. Foreign military units must see that they will be held accountable for their actions and place their funding and training at risk if they commit a violation of human rights.
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Documentation of the Amendments:
The Leahy Amendment in the 2001 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act (Sec. 563 of P.L. 106-429) states :“None of the funds made available by this Act may be provided to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible evidence that such unit has committed gross violations of human rights, unless the Secretary determines and reports to the Committees on Appropriations that the government of such country is taking effective measures to bring the responsible members of the security forces unit to justice.”
While the Foreign Operations law covers both training and assistance (such as weapons grants), the Leahy Amendment in the 2001 Defense Appropriations Act (Sec. 8092 of P.L. 106-259) covers only training, and states: “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to support any training program involving a unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of Defense has received credible information from the Department of State that a member of such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights, unless all necessary corrective steps have been taken.”
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