US Congress Includes Human Rights Provisions in 2008 Spending Bill

The omnibus spending bill that US President George W. Bush signed into law on December 26 includes a number of important human rights provisions. Working with our allies in Congress and the State Department, Human Rights Watch pressed for several specific measures that were ultimately included in the bill, such as requiring Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to restore full political freedoms and the rule of law as a condition for receiving certain US military aid, and imposing a visa ban on Uzbek officials responsible for human rights violations like the massacre at Andijan in 2005. The legislation also suspends military aid to Sri Lanka until the State Department can certify that Sri Lanka is punishing officers responsible for human rights violations, providing access to humanitarian groups and journalists, and allowing the deployment of the UN monitoring mission that we have been advocating. In the case of Colombia, the legislation attaches extremely detailed conditions relating to respect for human rights, the dismantlement of paramilitary organizations, and extradition of paramilitaries-which Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called for. It also prohibits military aid to any country where the government, or government-supported forces, recruit child soldiers. Finally, in this legislation we secured a near-total hold on foreign military assistance for the provision, sale, or transfer of cluster munitions, which is the focus of an important global campaign for us because these weapons indiscriminately kill civilians.