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	Tackling past human rights violations by Pablo de Greiff, Paul Seils International Center for Transitional Justice   September 2012   Transitional justice is key to preventing human rights violations, says UN Special Rapporteur Pablo de Greiff.   The full observance of transitional justice is essential in preventing the reoccurrence of human rights violations around the world, a United Nations independent expert said today.   In a statement marking the presentation of his first report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the UN’s new Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, also urged world governments to see the practice of transitional justice – which specifically tackles past human rights violations – as a strategy for redressing massive rights violations in times of transition.   “Redress cannot be achieved without truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence,” Mr. De Greiff said, adding that the four elements of his mandate would effectively place victims at the centre of all efforts to address their grievances.   “The recognition of victims as individuals and holders of rights is essential in any attempts to redress massive human rights violations and prevent their recurrence,” he added.   Recalling the legacy of human rights abuses in Chile, Mr. de Greiff noted that the four components of his mandate had already helped provide recognition to victims, foster trust and reconciliation and strengthen the rule of law.   On 11 September 1973, a military coup led by Chilean General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically-elected government of President Salvador Allende, following an aerial bombardment of the presidential palace. General Pinochet subsequently became President of the country, which he ruled until 1990, and during which numerous human rights violations were perpetrated against opposition supporters.   “Thirty-nine years later, and at least in part thanks to the perseverance of so many actors, victims included, in Chile and elsewhere, domestic systems and the international community have available mechanisms to address situations of gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law,” said Mr. de Greiff.   July 2012   International Justice Day, by Paul Seils.   As we mark July 17, designated International Justice Day by the states parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) just over two years ago, we should not limit our focus to the work of the court or criminal justice as such. Pursuing justice in the aftermath of atrocity presents an opportunity to do three crucial things: reaffirm a society’s shared values about basic ideas of right and wrong; restore confidence in the institutions of the state charged with protecting fundamental rights and freedoms; and recognize the human dignity of the victims of atrocities that have taken place.   Criminal justice does have a central role to play in these aims, but the means of achieving them lies not in the singular pursuit of prosecutions, but in managing a range of measures that ensure there can be no denial about the patterns of abuses that occurred - that the truth be known; that those bearing the most responsibility face trial; that material and symbolic reparations are provided to victims to the extent possible, and that flawed institutions are reformed to remove wrongdoers and ensure that such practices do not recur.   Over the last 20 years we have learned much more about how these things might be done to better effect, but we remain in the foothills. The one truth that has been proved again and again is that the key to justice lies not in rhetoric or the occasional trial, or the one-off truth commission, but in a fundamental recognition of the dignity of those who have suffered. If we take that seriously, the rest follows much more easily.   The pursuit of justice has come a long way in the last few decades, and as such the prospect of the protection of most fundamental rights and freedoms around the world stands stronger than it once did. Those engaged in large-scale killing, torture, rape, disappearance, and systematic starvation have been on notice for some time that they should not expect to get away with it.   International Justice Day is partly about recommitting to the promise the international community has made to victims that such crimes will not be tolerated. It is a day on which we can all reaffirm basic notions of right and wrong that transcend ideology: that it is never acceptable to disappear a person because she disagrees with your political views; that it is never acceptable to rape a girl because your commander told you it was like a form of payment; that it is never acceptable to torture a prisoner because his colleagues attacked your colleagues.   These are principles of an almost shockingly minimal standard and yet we still frequently find ourselves having to make the case for them. The good news is that slowly but surely, accountability is becoming more of a reality. And this understanding of accountability takes the form not only of criminal trials, but also in almost 50 truth commissions that have taken place; in the multiple (although some flawed) reparations programs instituted in many countries; in the reform of police, judicial, security and intelligence sectors.   There will inevitably be claims that international justice has turned into some kind of persecution of African states. We should not let this argument cloud the fact that real progress is being made, both in terms of accountability and our complex understanding of what that means for societies dealing with a legacy of past abuses.   This is not the place to confront the arguments about the ICC "picking on Africa". But let us think for a moment - not of the African leaders who make such claims, but of the African victims who are not allowed to be heard. We should of course depreciate and fight against the double standards that allow leaders of powerful states to escape justice, but if that leads to abandoning the fight for the right to justice of victims in Africa, the only victors are the violent leaders of both the powerful and the weak states. The victims of crimes committed in Africa have the same rights as victims everywhere. The fundamental dignity of the child soldier forcibly recruited in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the same fundamental dignity of the disappeared in Argentina in the 1970s, of the Mayan villagers massacred in Guatemala the 1980s, of the dead and tortured in the Omarska camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s.   The response to these atrocities, perpetrated throughout the world, remains complex. We are getting better at understanding those complexities, at recognising the opportunities for societies to rebuild on the basis of taking the dignity of victims seriously. Criminal justice alone is an instrument with limited reach, but an essential part of the equation. Working together with the efforts to ensure truth, reparations, and reform, we can help ensure such atrocities do not recur.   We recognize today the progress made in the fight for justice. We remember the struggles to get to where we are, the lives lost and the hardships suffered along the way, and the constant unobserved struggle of many that continues today. We reaffirm the call to justice, to the basic recognition of right and wrong, and to the knowledge that where there is no accountability, there is no dignity.   * Paul Seils is vice president of the International Center for Transitional Justice and former head of Analysis Section of the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. See also OHCHR: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/TransitionalJustice.aspx Visit the related web page
	US inquiry highlights money laundering practices by NYT & news agencies   18 Jul 2012   David Bagley the head of compliance at HSBC has resigned from his position after a US senate investigation found that lax controls at the bank allowed Mexican drug cartels to launder billions of dollars through its US operations.   In addition, HSBC and its US affiliate concealed more than $16bn in sensitive transactions to Iran, violating US transparency rules over a six-year period, a senate panel said.   And HSBC"s US division provided money and banking services to some banks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh believed to have helped fund al-Qaeda and other similar groups.   The US Justice Department said it is conducting a criminal investigation into HSBC"s operations. The US investigations follow the Barclays Bank scandal in the UK over manipulated interest rates, which has provoked international outrage over what many view as regulators failure to enforce adequate financial regulation standards.   HSBC"s operates in about 80 countries around the world. Its US division is among the top 10 banks operating in the United States.   Money laundering takes profits from the trafficking of drugs, arms or other illicit activities and passes them through bank accounts to disguise the illegal activity.   The bank used its US operation as a "gateway" into the US financial system for other HSBC affiliates, Senator Carl Levin, the subcommittee"s chairman, told reporters on Monday.   Because of lax controls against money laundering, HSBC Bank USA "exposed the United States to Mexican drug money" and other suspicious funds, Levin said.   The bank said in its statement that it changed its senior management last year and has made changes to strengthen its compliance with rules to prevent money laundering.   HSBC will have company in the senate"s harsh spotlight - the report was also highly critical of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a major US bank regulator.   The Senate report faulted the office for its oversight of HSBC. In prepared testimony released at the start of the hearing, the OCC acknowledged the need for changes the report called for in its oversight of anti-money laundering operations.   The report is the product of a yearlong investigation by a Senate subcommittee, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. HSBC is Europe’s largest financial institution. It raises further questions of the problem of illegal money flowing through international financial institutions into the United States.   “Banks that ignore money laundering rules are a big problem for our country,” said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who leads the subcommittee. “Also troubling is a bank regulator that does not adequately do its job.” He called HSBC’s compliance culture “pervasively polluted for a long time.”   Mr. Levin, however, said on Monday that HSBC had promised to fix similar problems in years past and failed. “While the bank is saying all the right things, and that is fine, it has said all the right things before,” he said.   The report on HSBC is the latest of several scandals that have recently rocked global banks and highlighted the inability of regulators to catch what is claimed to be widespread wrongdoing in the financial industry. The British bank Barclays recently admitted that its traders tried to manipulate a crucial global interest rate, and multiple major banks are under investigation. JPMorgan Chase disclosed last week that its employees may have tried to hide trades that are likely to cost the bank billions of dollars.   Mr. Levin said that wrongdoing in the financial world has been exacerbated by the relatively light touch of government regulators. “As long as a bank just sees that it is going to be dealt with kid gloves, I think we are going to continue to see these shortfalls that have been so endemic,” Mr. Levin said.   The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has come under particularly harsh criticism for showing too much deference to the banks it regulates. The new leader of the agency, Thomas J. Curry, has promised a stricter approach since he took over in April.   Mr. Curry said in a statement on Monday that members of his staff “fully embrace” the subcommittee’s report.   Regulators have been paying close attention to the willingness of global banks to facilitate illegal flows of money from outside the United States. The Treasury Department announced last month that ING Bank had agreed to pay $619 million to settle charges that it moved money into the United States from Cuba and Iran, despite sanctions against those countries, for nearly two decades. Since 2009, there have been five similar settlements between American regulators and other banks, including Barclays and Credit Suisse, over illicit transactions.   In the Senate report, HSBC is facing accusations that it helped its clients circumvent rules intended to stop transactions from countries facing international sanctions, and in some cases flouted laws in pursuit of profits.   While HSBC is accused of moving money into the United States from North Korea and Cuba, the most extensive problems involved accounts in Iran. An independent audit, paid for by HSBC, found that the bank facilitated 25,000 questionable payments involving Iran between 2001 and 2007. In some cases, HSBC executives counseled Iranian financial institutions on how to evade the filters of American regulators, the report says.   When the bank developed a way to process transactions for Iran’s largest retail bank, an HSBC executive wrote an e-mail to his colleagues that said, “I wish to be on the record as not comfortable with this piece of business.” None of his colleagues responded and the deal went ahead, according to the report.   The subcommittee also found evidence of widespread wrongdoing in HSBC’s failure to stop money laundering through accounts tied to drug trafficking in Mexico. The bank is accused of shipping $7 billion in cash from Mexico to the United States in 2007 and 2008 despite several warnings that the money was coming from cartels that needed a way to return their profits to the United States.   In many of the cases detailed in the report, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is said to have spotted the problematic behavior. But in nearly every case, the subcommittee found that the agency gave HSBC only a warning or mild punishment and did not push the bank to make large-scale changes.   A new chief executive took over at HSBC early last year and he has committed to making sweeping changes at the company to increase oversight of international flows of money.   9 July 2012   UN officials highlight costs of corruption on societies.   At a high-level panel discussion on accountability and transparency, United Nations officials today highlighted the costs that corruption has on societies, and called on countries to forge partnerships to combat this issue.   “Corruption hampers the ability of nations to prosper and grow,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the closing of the panel discussion, at UN Headquarters in New York. “Neither peace, development nor human rights can flourish in an atmosphere of corruption.”   Organized by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the ECOSOC 2012 High Level Panel on ‘Accountability, Transparency and Sustainable Development: Turning Challenges into Opportunities’ sought to spotlight the negative consequences that corruption and lack of transparency can have on sustainable development, while giving participants the opportunity to exchange views on innovative approaches and partnerships in combating the issue.   “Last year, corruption prevented 30 per cent of all development assistance from reaching its final destination. This translates into bridges, hospitals and schools that were never built, and people living without the benefit of these services,” Mr. Ban said. “This is a failure of accountability and transparency. We cannot let it persist.”   Addressing the opening of the discussion earlier Monday, the Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, had described corruption as a threat to sustainable development and the “moral fibre of societies.”   “The work against corruption is even more important in weak and fragile countries – some just emerging from conflict – where the rule of law and institutions are still vulnerable,” he added, stressing that it is vital that governments include anti-corruption measures in all national development programmes.   The High Level Panel also promoted a renewed commitment for the ratification or accession to the UN Convention against Corruption by countries that have not yet done so. The Convention is the first legally binding global anti-corruption instrument – it obliges States to prevent and criminalize corruption, promote international cooperation, recover stolen assets and improve technical assistance and information exchange.   “This event has highlighted the important role of accountability and transparency and their impact on development. Our debate has shown that, if we are to successfully promote accountability and transparency, a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach is required,” said ECOSOC’s President, Miloš Koterec.   He added, “I once again urge every State to join the Convention and to add their own voices to the groundswell of countries seeking to promote accountability and transparency.” Visit the related web page
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