CJA assists the prosecution of human rights abusers in foreign courts by working to get perpetrators extradited from the United States to other countries, whether their home nations or third countries, for criminal prosecution.

CJA has been heavily involved in the effort to prosecute top Guatemalan perpetrators in Spain. CJA International Attorney Almudena Bernabeu is one of the prosecutors in the Guatemalan genocide case filed in Spain by Rigoberta Menchú. Additionally, CJA has played a central role in attempts to arrest the accused, Donaldo Alvarez Ruiz, the Guatemalan Minister of Defense from 1976-82. Alvarez Ruiz lived in Miami in the 1980s, but left the United States in February 1999 after the U.S. embassy in Guatemala revoked his visa in response to a Spanish indictment. Pursuant to a request filed by CJA and the Rigoberta Menchú Foundation, a Spanish judge issued a warrant for his arrest and requested his extradition from Mexico. CJA also played a key role in the arrest of Vittorio Orvieto Teplinzky, a Chilean doctor alleged to have treated tortured prisoners to ensure that they did not die in order that their torture could continue. CJA learned that he was a permanent resident of the United States living in the Miami area and contacted a Chilean judge who then requested that INTERPOL issue an international arrest warrant and a special alert. When Orvieto attempted to return to Chile using an Egyptian passport, Chilean police took him into custody based on the special INTERPOL alert.

CJA is also working with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to help them criminally prosecute human rights abusers found within U.S. borders. In 1994 Congress adopted a law making torture, wherever and by whomever committed, a crime that can be prosecuted in US courts. Although CJA has provided the DOJ with evidence against perpetrators in the U.S., no one has been prosecuted under this law.

CJA and our clients speak at training programs and events around the country and on numerous radio and TV programs, reaching out to refugee communities, lawyers, law students, other students, torture treatment professionals and the general public. Our cases have been covered by PBS, CNN, BBC, NPR, Univision and Telemundo (the two worldwide Spanish language television networks), the International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Independent (UK), La Prensa Grafica and El Diario de Hoy (the two largest circulation papers in El Salvador), and numerous other publications throughout the US, Latin America and Europe. Click here to read press about CJA.

CJA hosted three very successful events with Judge Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish investigating judge whose indictment led to Pinochet's 1998 arrest in London. For pictures of Garzon's visit, click here. Read the article about Garzon in the S. F. Chronicle.

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CJA succeeded in getting language included in a Senate Report on legislation about human rights abusers that will help hold commanders responsible for failing to stop or punish atrocities, as well as for committing or ordering the abuses. CJA provided leadership in helping NGOs - including Amnesty International USA and the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs - to formulate their positions on this legislation to enhance the ability of the US Government to (a) prosecute torturers under the UN Convention Against Torture, (b) prosecute torturers and other human rights abusers for fraud in completing their visa applications, and (c) deport and/or take other immigration actions against them.

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On July 12, 2004 The Bar Association of San Francisco, with the support of CJA, voted to cosponsor a resolution, to be presented to the ABA House of Delegates at the August annual meeting, that condemns the used of torture or other cruel treatment upon persons under the control of the U.S. government (including its contractors).

The resolution also calls on the U.S. government to a) enforce compliance with treaty obligations, including by bringing prosecutions under the War Crimes Act and the Uniform Code of Military Justice; b) ensure that all foreign persons in U.S. custody are treated in accordance with standards that the U.S. would consider lawful if employed with respect to captive Americans; c) ensure that no person is turned over to another government when there are grounds to believe that such person will be in danger of being subjected to torture or other cruel treatment; and d) pursue vigorously appropriate proceedings against persons who may have committed, assisted, authorized, condoned, had command responsibility for, or otherwise participated in such violations.

The resolution further urges Congress to amend the law, passed in 1994, that makes torture committed outside the U.S. a federal crime. The law, 18 U.S.C. § 2340A, should be extended to encompass torture wherever committed, and whenever intentionally inflicted, without requiring proof of specific intent to torture. The need for these changes are explained in a 15-page Report. First, the inapplicability of state law to U.S. facilities abroad and the lack of other federal criminal law comparable to Section 2340A leaves a serious vacuum in carrying out the obligations of the U.S. under the U.N. Convention Against Torture. For instance, no law prohibits torture at the Guantanamo base. Second, Section 2340A defines torture to be any “act committed by a person acting under color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain…” The Administration has interpreted this “specific intent” language to virtually eliminate its use against torturers: [E]ven if the defendant knows that severe pain will result from his actions, if causing such harm is not his objective, he lacks the requisite specific intent even though the defendant did not act in good faith.” So long as the purpose is to get information, this interpretation suggests that any means may be used. This language clearly needs to be restricted to facilitate federal torture prosecutions.

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