| Recent Developments In The Investigation Of The Murder Of Human Rights Attorney Patrick Finucane |
May 16, 2013 |
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Christopher Smith, R-NJ
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"Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations held a hearing to assess progress on the unfulfilled British commitment—broken commitment, unless the British Government reverses course—in the Finucane collusion case, and how this affects the peace process in Northern Ireland. In connection with the Good Friday peace agreement, the British Government promised to conduct public inquiries into the Finucane and three other cases where government collusion in a paramilitary murder was suspected. Subsequently the British government backtracked in regard to the Finucane case—the 1989 murder of human rights lawyer Patrick Finucane. The British backtracking came despite the recommendation to hold an inquiry, which, again, the British Government agreed to abide by, of the internationally respected jurist and former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Peter Cory in 2004. I’d like to thank Judge Cory again, who testified about his recommendation, at a congressional hearing which I chaired in May of 2004. That is now nine years ago—and we are all still trying to get the British government to live up to its commitment. The Finucane family has testified at many hearings—Geraldine, Patrick’s widow, and his son John, his son Michael, who testified yesterday—going back sixteen years. And of course there have been many others—and all of these witnesses, advocates, and experts have advocated a full, independent, and public judicial inquiry into the police collusion with loyalist paramilitaries responsible for brutally murdering Pat Finucane. Over these years the dedicated human rights activists and experts have established much of what happened, and, after facts have been established, the British Government has acknowledged many of them. In 2011 the British Government admitted that it did collude in the Finucane murder and apologized for it. Much of the credit for this admission goes to the many of you who have done the work on all the reports that documented collusion, until it was pointless for the British Government to continue denying it. So that is progress. But the work is not done because the British Government has reserved one final, yet massive injustice: it continues to protect those responsible for the murder of Pat Finucane. Prime Minister Cameron told the Finucane family that the government would not conduct the promised public inquiry into the collusion. The deliberate decision not to proceed with a public inquiry is a glaring, public breach of faith. It is the source of enormous frustration to Patrick Finucane’s family and friends. It resonates throughout Northern Ireland, calling into question the British Government’s commitment to peace and reconciliation. This is particularly sad because the British Government has taken so many other positive, truly honorable steps, many of which were painful for large sectors of British public and official opinion—such as the Bloody Sunday inquiry, released in 2010. To call all that into question by reneging on the promised Finucane inquiry is a tragedy. Most recently, in December 2012, Sir Desmond De Silva released a new report on collusion in the Finucane murder—really a review of existing case files rather than the gathering of new evidence that the promised inquiry would produce. The De Silva report detailed what Prime Minister Cameron admitted were “shocking” levels of state collusion in the murder, including that it was RUC officers who proposed the killing of Finucane, passed information to his killers, and obstructed the investigation, and that British domestic security had intelligence of the murder threats months before the actual crime yet took no steps to protect him. It is admirable that Prime the Minister has admitted collusion and apologized for it, but it is really too much to admit a government crime and then to say it will not be investigated—particularly when the government has undertaken a commitment to do so. The question asks itself—after so many positive steps, is the British Government really going to diminish the good it’s done since 1998 in order to protect the identity of people who share responsibility for a murder? I’m sure Congress will continue to maintain a strong voice on this case, which goes to the core of human rights and rule of law."
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| Resolving International Parental Child Abductions To Non-Hague Convention Countries |
May 16, 2013 |
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Christopher Smith, R-NJ
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"Mr. Speaker, last week, the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, which I chair, held a hearing focused on the persistent and devastating problem of international parental child abduction, which occurs when one parent unlawfully moves a child from his or her country of residence, often for the purpose of denying the other parent access to the child."
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| Increasing American Jobs Through Greater Exports To Africa |
May 8, 2013 |
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Christopher Smith, R-NJ
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"Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I chaired a Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations hearing that examined the issues surrounding U.S. exports to Africa, which are supposed to at least balance African exports to the United States. This included looking at existing obstacles to two-way trade with Africa. The hearing specifically examined the Increasing American Jobs Through Greater Exports to Africa Act of 2013 (H.R. 1777). The bill was reintroduced in the House by myself, Ranking Member Karen Bass, and Congressman Bobby Rush on April 26th and was introduced in the Senate on April 11th as S. "
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| Meeting The Challenge Of Drug-Resistant Diseases In Developing Countries |
April 24, 2013 |
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Christopher Smith, R-NJ
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"Mr. Speaker, the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations held a hearing that examined a deadly phenomenon involving both natural and man-made elements—diseases that are resistant to most or all available methods of treatment. While this is a growing problem of increasing concern throughout the world, the subcommittee focused yesterday on the impact of such diseases—known as “superbugs”—in developing countries and the challenges to preventing and treating these diseases in this part of the world."
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| Tier Rankings And The Fight Against Human Trafficking |
April 24, 2013 |
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Christopher Smith, R-NJ
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"Mr. Speaker, last week, the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations held a hearing that examined the role of tier rankings in the fight against human trafficking. Many of those who joined us last week have been in this fight from the beginning—from the year 2000 when my Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act created not only the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the Department of State, but also the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. At the time, I don’t think anyone could have predicted that this report would become the international gold standard and primary means of anti-trafficking accountability around the world. From the halls of parliaments to police stations in remote corners of the world, this report is being used to focus anti-trafficking work in 186 countries on the key areas of prevention, prosecution, and protection. The fact that it has been so successful is a credit to the hard and careful work of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Each year, this office evaluates whether the government of a country is fully complying with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, or, if not, whether the government is making significant efforts to do so. The record is laid bare for the world to see and summarized in a tier ranking. Tier I countries fully meet the minimum standards. Tier II countries do not meet the minimum standards but are making significant effort to do so. Tier III countries do not meet the standards and are not making significant effort to do so. Along with the embarrassment of being listed on Tier III, Tier III countries are open to sanction by the U.S. government. Since the TIP Report’s inception, more than 120 countries have enacted anti-trafficking laws and many countries have taken other steps required to significantly raise their tier rankings—citing the TIP Report as a key factor in their increased anti-trafficking response. In the 2003 Trafficking in Persons Reauthorization Act, I and my colleagues in Congress created the Tier II Watch List. This list was intended to encourage anti-trafficking progress in a country that took positive anti-trafficking steps late in the evaluation year—especially those countries that took last-minute measures to avoid a Tier III designation. We wanted to reward good faith efforts and encourage them to continue. However, some countries made a habit of last minute efforts and failed to follow through year after year, gaming the system. Consequently, in 2008, Congress created an “automatic downgrade” for any country that had been on the Tier II Watch List for two years but had not taken significant enough anti-trafficking measures to move to Tier II. The President can waive a Tier III downgrade for two additional years if there is “credible evidence” that the country has a written and sufficiently resourced plan to meet the minimum standards. The “automatic downgrade” would protect the integrity of the tier system and ensure it worked properly to inspire real progress in the fight against human trafficking. It has now been four years since the two-year limit, or four years-with-a-waiver limit, was instituted. China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Azerbaijan have now had at least four full years of warning that they would face downgrade to Tier III if they did not make significant efforts to prosecute traffickers, protect victims, and prevent trafficking. Now their time on the Tier II Watch List is up. In last week’s hearing, we took a close look at the records of these countries in 2012. If these countries have once again failed to make significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, the State Department must downgrade them or risk undermining the credibility and demonstrated power of the TIP Report. I am particularly concerned about the Government of China’s record. The Government of China has been on the Tier II Watch List for eight consecutive years in large part because its plan to fight human trafficking is inadequate, unevenly implemented, and the Government of China has not been making significant efforts to comply with the minimum standards. Law enforcement in China is still not trained to identify or respond properly to sex or labor trafficking victims. I have heard reports that local police are often unwilling to help parents find missing children who may be enslaved in local brick kilns, and that officials have been known to profit from brick kilns that exploit children. As we heard from a brave trafficking survivor last week, the Government of China continues to forcibly repatriate North Korean trafficking victims who face severe punishment, including execution, upon their return to North Korea. Moreover, the Government of China’s continued one-child policy has decimated China’s female population. Tens of millions of women and girls are missing from the population, making China a regional magnet for sex and bride trafficking as men reach marrying age but cannot find a mate. The Government of China is failing not only to address its own trafficking problems, but is creating an incentive for human trafficking problems in the whole region. The Government of Uzbekistan’s record is also of great concern, as the government itself continues to force hundreds of thousands of school-age children and adults to work in fields during the cotton harvest each year. The Government of the Republic of Congo, despite making some progress in 2010 with the passage of a law that would prevent child trafficking, has failed in the last two years to convict a single person under that law despite the pervasive child trafficking in their country. The Government of Russia has had nine years of warning that without significant change, they too would be downgraded. However, the Government of Russia does not have in place formal procedures for identification and referral of trafficking victims by law enforcement, labor inspectors, and other government officials. The Government of Russia still has not established a government body to organize government anti-trafficking activities, nor does it adequately fund shelters or services for trafficking victims. Russian citizens are trafficked from Russia to countries all over the globe as well as within Russia, and yet the Government of Russia does not have a national trafficking education or prevention plan. The Government of Azerbaijan continues to use administrative fines for traffickers, allowing traffickers to write-off the crime of trafficking as a simple business expense that is less expensive than hiring their workers. The Government of Iraq has been on the Watch List since the TIP Report first began to hold them accountable in 2009. Like trafficking victims elsewhere in the world, the victims in Iraq need protection, those who are vulnerable to trafficking need prevention measures, and traffickers need to be brought to justice. The importance of accurate Tier rankings cannot be overstated. Over the last 12 years, we have seen countries begin in earnest the hard work of reaching the minimum standards after the TIP Report accurately exposed—with a Tier III ranking—each country’s failure to take significant action against human trafficking. By the same token, a premature boost to Tier II, such as what occurred with Vietnam last year, may not only undermine progress, but fail to inspire it. The tier rankings were meant to be, and in large part have become, a powerful tool in the fight against human trafficking."
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