Leahy Law
Updated 2024-07-25
2024-05-20 I created the Leahy law. It should be applied to Israel Requiring Israel to respect human rights does not imply “moral equivalence” with Hamas.
In the 1980s and ’90s, the United States gave training, weapons and ammunition to Latin American security forces with a long history of violating human rights. In Guatemala and El Salvador, soldiers trained and equipped by the United States killed hundreds of thousands of civilians with near-total impunity. I conceived and introduced the Leahy law in 1997 because our Latin partners, and security forces in many other countries, were violating the basic principles that the United States stands for, and we were complicit.
Today, people are asking whether the law should apply to Israel. The law prohibits U.S. aid to any unit of a foreign security force if the secretary of state has “credible information” the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights: murder, rape, torture, forced disappearance or other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty and personal security. Aid can resume if the foreign government is taking “effective steps” to bring the responsible members of the unit to justice. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/20/israel-leahy-human-rights-aid/
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