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{{Short description|American human rights law}}
The '''Leahy Laws''' or '''Leahy amendments''' are U.S. [[human rights]] laws that prohibit the U.S. [[Department of State]] and [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]] from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights with [[impunity]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/2378d|title=22 U.S. Code § 2378d - Limitation on assistance to security forces|website=LII / Legal Information Institute|language=en|access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref> It is named after its principal sponsor, Senator [[Patrick Leahy]] (D-Vermont).<ref name="leahy.senate.gov">{{Cite web | url=http://www.leahy.senate.gov/issues/human-rights | title=Human Rights | U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont}}</ref>
To implement this law, the U.S. embassies, the [[Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor]], and the appropriate regional bureau of the U.S. Department of State vet potential recipients of security assistance.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.humanrights.gov/2013/07/09/an-overview-of-the-leahy-vetting-process/ |title=
==Origins and background==
Senator Leahy first introduced this law in 1997 as part of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act. It initially referred only to counter-narcotics assistance for one year.{{cn|date=September 2021}} The next year, with his leadership, Congress expanded it to cover all State Department funded assistance. This provision was included in all annual Foreign Operations budget laws until 2008. At that time Congress made the law permanent by amending it into the [[Foreign Assistance Act]].<ref>Section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act.</ref> In 2011, Congress revised the law substantially, seeking to enhance its implementation.
The United States government has long been a major, if not the largest, provider of assistance—including funding, training, non-lethal equipment, and weaponry—to foreign military and other security forces.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66224/robert-m-gates/helping-others-defend-themselves|title=Helping Others Defend Themselves|last=|first=|date=18 May 2010|website=Foreign Affairs
According to Senator Leahy, his 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."<ref name="leahy.senate.gov"/>
==Text of the laws==
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Another difference concerns what steps a government must take to resume assistance once a security force unit has been flagged for gross human rights violations. The Foreign Assistance Act version requires that the government of the country in question "is taking effective steps to bring the responsible members of the security forces unit to justice" while the Defense Department version prohibits assistance "unless all necessary corrective steps have been taken".<ref name="US Government Accountability Office 2013, p. 7"/>
Leahy Law provisions are sometimes confused with human rights conditionality that applies to overall Foreign
The Leahy Law applies only to assistance to specific units, and does not necessarily affect the level of assistance to a country, even when implemented. Human rights conditionality, on the other hand, typically requires a percentage of assistance to a country to be withheld until the Department of State certifies progress on certain human rights conditions. ==Vetting process==
The U.S. government (via the State Department) implements the law through a process known as "Leahy vetting".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.humanrights.gov/issues/leahy-vetting/ |title=Leahy vetting |publisher=Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, US State Department |access-date=2013-09-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207080529/http://www.humanrights.gov/issues/leahy-vetting/ |archive-date=2013-12-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A prospective aid recipient's unit is searched for evidence of past commission of gross human rights violations. The State Department has interpreted "gross human rights violations" to mean a small number of the most heinous acts: murder of non-combatants, torture, "disappearing" people, and rape as a tactic.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}
The government utilizes the International Vetting and Security Tracking (INVEST) system, which tracks all units and individuals who are potential recipients of assistance, including any information that suggests they are ineligible for assistance and any past determinations regarding their eligibility.
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The process is, in general, not transparent; in June 2016, State Department Spokesperson John Kirby said department officials do not "speak to specific cases on Leahy vetting. We don't do that."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/06/258467.htm|title=Daily Press Briefing – June 14, 2016|publisher=U.S. Department of State|access-date=2016-06-15}}</ref>
While there is no exact definition of what constitutes "credible" information, the State Department's standard is that it need not reach the same standard as would be required to admit evidence in a U.S. court of law. Vetters rely on a wide array of sources including the annual
Certain countries known as "Fast Track" countries are only required to be vetted at the embassy level.{{cn|reason=WikiLeaks is an unreliable source, see [[WP:RS/P]]|date=September 2021}} The State Department's Leahy Working Group determines by consensus which countries are eligible for Fast Track vetting. A Fast Track country has a "favorable human rights record, including no serious or systemic problems in the country's security forces and no widespread problems with impunity".
==Withholding of assistance ==
The U.S. government rarely publicizes decisions to deny
In 1998, financing from the Export-Import Bank was denied for thirty-nine of 140 armored police vehicles being bought by Turkey because those vehicles were destined for 11 provinces where police had been implicated in abuses of human rights. The manufacturer, [[General Dynamics]], ultimately provided the financing for the thirty-nine vehicles.<ref>Dana Priest, New Human Rights Law Triggers Policy Debate, ''Washington Post'', December 31, 1998.</ref>
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Indonesia's elite [[Komando Pasukan Khusus]] (Kopassus) was subject to a 12-year ban on U.S. security assistance after it was implicated in a series of kidnappings and murders of activists in the late 1990s.<ref>John Pomfret, U.S. may train Indonesian unit; AN EFFORT TO IMPROVE TIES Aid to Kopassus has been banned since '97, ''Washington Post, ''March 3, 2010</ref>
In 2010 outrage over extrajudicial killings committed by the armed forces of [[Pakistan]] led to the suspension of aid to "about a half-dozen" units of the Pakistani army.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Schmitt|first1=Eric|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/world/asia/22policy.html|title=Pakistani Troops Linked to Abuses Will Lose Aid|date=2010-10-21|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-02-27|last2=Sanger|first2=David E.|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
A 2013 report by [[Freedom House]] described the Leahy Law as "an invaluable tool in preventing U.S. assistance to military or police units that commit human rights abuses" and added that "it is invoked sparingly and only in egregious cases of specific violence".<ref>Sarah Trister, "Investing In Freedom: Democracy Support in the U.S. Budget", Freedom House Policy Brief, July 22, 2013.</ref>
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In 2013, several U.S. military commanders cited the law as interfering with their ability to train foreign forces. They claimed that the law was being applied too broadly.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/us/politics/military-says-law-barring-us-aid-to-rights-violators-hurts-training-mission.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 | title=Military Says Law Barring U.S. Aid to Rights Violators Hurts Training Mission| newspaper=The New York Times| date=2013-06-20| last1=Schmitt| first1=Eric}}</ref>
Most criticism, however, has been that the law is too weak and is not enforced robustly enough.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tate|first=Winifred|date=2011|title=Human Rights Law and Military Aid Delivery: A Case Study of the Leahy Law|journal=PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review|language=en|volume=34|issue=2|pages=337–354|doi=10.1111/j.1555-2934.2011.01169.x|issn=1555-2934|url=https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/faculty_scholarship/71}}</ref> For instance, in 2011 [[Human Rights Watch]] reported that the U.S. "continued to aid and train Cambodia's armed forces including units with records of serious human rights violations such as Brigade 31, battalion 70 and Airborne Brigade 911 – in violation of the Leahy Law".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2011/country-chapters/cambodia|title=World Report 2011: Rights Trends in World Report 2011: Cambodia|chapter=World Report 2011: Cambodia |date=2011-01-24|website=Human Rights Watch|language=en|access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref>
A number of observers have complained that the Leahy Act has not been enacted in response to what they have claimed are [[Human rights in Israel|human rights abuses]] by the
In April 2024, [[ProPublica]] reported that [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Antony Blinken]] had refused to act on recommendations from the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum to sanction Israeli units that had participated in human rights violations including torture, rape, and extrajudicial killings in the [[West Bank]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Murphy |first=Brett |date=2024-04-17 |title=Blinken Is Sitting on Staff Recommendations to Sanction Israeli Military Units Linked to Killings or Rapes |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/israel-gaza-blinken-leahy-sanctions-human-rights-violations |access-date=2024-04-26 |website=[[ProPublica]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Flaherty |first=Anne |date=April 26, 2024 |title=US holds off on sanctioning Israeli military units accused of human rights violations in West Bank before start of war with Hamas |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-sanction-israeli-military-units-accused-human-rights/story?id=109651562 |access-date=2024-04-26 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref> Charles Blaha, a former State Department official, explained that Israel receives special treatment under the Leahy law because the decision on any sanction is taken by the Department's top political appointees rather than by career officials.<ref name=":0" />
▲A number of observers have complained that the Leahy Act has not been enacted in response to what they have claimed are human rights abuses by the Israeli military. In 2011, Haaretz reported that Leahy (D-VT), after being approached by constituents in Vermont, was pushing clauses that would bar aid to three elite Israeli military units that have been accused of human rights violations in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.<ref>{{Cite news | url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-senator-seeks-to-cut-aid-to-elite-idf-units-operating-in-west-bank-and-gaza-1.378800 | title=U.S. Senator Seeks to Cut Aid to Elite IDF Units Operating in West Bank and Gaza| newspaper=Haaretz| date=2011-08-16}}</ref> A spokesman for Leahy denied this.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0811/Leahy_says_legislation_doesnt_aim_at_Israel_but_could_hit_it.html | title=Leahy says legislation doesn't aim at Israel, but could hit it}}</ref> Leahy's Senate webpage<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.leahy.senate.gov/issues/policies-by-region | title=Policies by Region | U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont}}</ref> repeats his views that while "he has supported Israel's right to self-defense", "he disagrees with restrictions on imports of goods into Gaza as it amounts to collective punishment, with Israel's use of excessive force in Gaza which has caused the deaths of hundreds of civilians, and with home demolitions and settlement construction in the West Bank." In February 2016, 11 members of Congress, including Leahy, sent a letter to the State Department demanding a review of the Leahy Act be conducted after reports of extrajudicial killings by Israeli and Egyptian military forces.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/patrick-leahy-senate-israel-egypt-state-221366 | title=Leahy asked State Dept. To investigate Israeli human rights 'violations'}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000153-c56c-d662-a75b-cfecc6be0000|title=Congress of the United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515-1004|last=|first=|date=|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref>
==See also==
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[[Category:1997 in American law]]
[[Category:1997 in international relations]]
[[Category:Patrick Leahy]]
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