Working to Extend America's Leadership Around the Globe

Leahy War Victims Fund.  In 1989, Senator Leahy led efforts to establish a fund to provide medical, vocational, and rehabilitation assistance to civilians who have been severely disabled by war.  Later renamed the Leahy War Victims Fund, it is managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) which supports programs to assist those who have sustained mobility-related injuries from landmines, cluster bombs, and other war-related causes.  Since its inception, the Fund has provided more than $100 million to over a quarter of a million people with disabilities in over 40 countries, including more than 100,000 artificial limbs and more than 22,000 wheelchairs.  These programs have played a critical role in alleviating suffering and mitigating the resentment toward the U.S. caused by civilian casualties.   

Land Mines and Cluster Munitions.  Landmines and cluster munitions are weapons that indiscriminately kill and injure thousands of civilians around the world every year. 

Since 1992, Senator Leahy has been deeply involved in the efforts to end the use of landmines around the world and to convince the United States to join the Mine Ban Treaty, speaking often about the need for U.S. leadership.  He wrote the law to end U.S. exports of anti-personnel landmines, and has been a leader in international efforts to ban these weapons.  He recently sent a letter to President Obama, co-signed by 68 other Senators, commending the Administration for its comprehensive review of current landmine policy with the goal of the U.S. joining the Mine Ban Treaty.

Senator Leahy also sponsored the legislation which created the law prohibiting the U.S. export of cluster munitions.  In 2008, he traveled to Dublin, Ireland, to speak at the negotiations on an international treaty banning cluster bombs, and he continues to urge the U.S. administration to impose strict limits on their use.

 Leahy Law.  In response to brutal crimes against civilians by foreign security forces that received U.S. aid, particularly in Latin America and Africa, Congress passed Senator Leahy’s amendment prohibiting aid to units of foreign security forces when the Secretary of State has credible evidence they have been involved in gross violations of human rights.  Widely referred to as the “Leahy Law,” it has become a cornerstone of U.S. law and policy relating to internationally recognized human rights.

The law has evolved and expanded since it was first enacted, and covers all training and equipment funded by the State Department, and all training funded by the Department of Defense.  Not only does the Leahy Law give U.S. defense and foreign policy officials the mandate and authority to hold foreign military and police forces accountable to human rights norms, it gives foreign governments incentives to seek out, investigate, punish, and prevent such human rights violations in order to avoid losing U.S. funding.

Leahy Amazon Basin Conservation Initiative.  In 2005, Senator Leahy was responsible for U.S. support of efforts to protect the forests of the Amazon basin from illegal logging and mining, destructive agricultural practices, and unsustainable development.  The Amazon Basin Conservation Initiative has funded, through USAID, efforts of the Andean countries and Brazil to protect rainforests, endangered species, and the territories of indigenous populations.  In addition, the Initiative promotes the use of clean energy sources such as solar, small hydro, and wind power, particularly in areas where other sources of energy are unavailable.  In leading this effort, Senator Leahy has sought not only to protect the environment in a region that is home to the world’s largest expanse of tropical forest, but also to strengthen the civil society organizations that play a crucial role in advocating for sound environmental policies and practices.

Infectious Disease Initiatives.  Since the mid-1990s, Senator Leahy has led efforts in the Senate to increase funding to help prevent some of the leading causes of death and disability in the world’s poorest countries—infectious diseases such as HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, measles and polio—and for programs to improve maternal and child health.   

Senator Leahy introduced the Global Health Act, which would have allocated an additional one billion dollars to fight AIDS, other infectious diseases, and malnutrition that annually claim the lives of more than ten million children under the age of five.  Although that legislation was not passed, both the Bush and Obama Administrations and Congress have come to support Senator Leahy’s view of the importance of global health.  The United States has significantly expanded its efforts to improve global health, through a series of initiatives to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected diseases, and to strengthen the public health capacity of developing countries. 

Human Rights and Genocide.  Senators Leahy and Durbin worked together to create a Judiciary Subcommittee to focus on human rights issues including genocide, human trafficking, child soldiers, systematic rape, and torture.  Stemming from the work of this subcommittee, Senator Leahy has co-sponsored several pieces of legislation, signed into law by both Presidents Obama and Bush, allowing the Justice Department to prosecute individuals in the United States who have committed genocide, torture, war crimes, or recruited or used child soldiers.  Prior American law did not allow prosecution of such heinous human rights violations committed overseas. 

Darfur.  Like millions of Americans across the country, Senator Leahy is extremely concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. As both Chairman and Ranking Member of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, he has been a strong supporter of providing the necessary funding to assist the people of Darfur. Through our aid, including contributions to the World Food Program, the United States has been the largest donor of food to the people of Sudan. The United States has also paid for the construction and maintenance costs for the 34 Darfur base camps for the over 7 ,000 African Union peacekeepers.

Through the 2009 State and Foreign Operations Appropriation law, Senator Leahy secured $1.65 billion for United Nations peacekeeping missions, of which about $400 million will be designated for Darfur.

Additionally, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy has urged the Chinese Government to use its considerable leverage in the Sudan to insist that the Sudanese government accept an increased international peacekeeping force in the region. The international community must continue to exert its collective influence and pressure on the Sudanese government to work towards a peaceful solution instead of encouraging the continued violence in this devastated region.