Contents
Consular Notification Compliance
Consular Notification Compliance Act (“cnca”) in 2011
United States views on international law (based on the document “Digest of U.S. Practice in International Law”): The millions of U.S. citizens who live and travel overseas, including many of the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces, are accorded critical protections by international treaties that ensure that detained foreign nationals have access to their country's consulate. Consular assistance is one of the most important services that the United States provides its citizens abroad. Through the U.S. consulates, the United States searches for citizens overseas who are missing, visits citizens in detention overseas to ensure they receive fair and humane treatment, works to secure the release of those unjustly detained, and provides countless other consular services. Such assistance has proven vital time and again, as recent experiences in Egypt, Libya, Syria and elsewhere have shown. For U.S. citizens arrested abroad, the assistance of their consulate is often essential for them to gain knowledge about the foreign country's legal system and how to access a lawyer, to report concerns about treatment in detention, to send messages to their family, or to obtain needed food or medicine. Prompt access to U.S. consular officers prevents U.S. citizen prisoners from being lost in a foreign legal system.
More about Consular Notification Compliance Act (“cnca”)
The United States is best positioned to demand that foreign governments respect consular rights with respect to U.S. citizens abroad when we comply with these same obligations for foreign nationals in the United States. By sending a strong message about how seriously the United States takes its own consular notification and access obligations, the Consular Notification Compliance Act will prove enormously helpful to the U.S. Government in ensuring that U.S. citizens detained overseas can receive critical consular assistance.
Developments
The Consular Notification Compliance Act will help us ensure that the United States complies fully with the U.S. obligations to provide foreign nationals detained in the United States with the opportunity to have their consulate notified and to receive consular assistance. By setting forth the minimal, practical steps that federal, state, and local authorities must take to comply with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) and similar bilateral international agreements, the Consular Notification Compliance Act will ensure early consular notification and access for foreign national defendants, avoiding future violations and potential claims of prejudice for those who are prosecuted and ultimately convicted. In this regard, the legislation is an invaluable complement to the extensive training efforts each of the U.S. Departments conducts in this area.
Details
The Consular Notification Compliance Act appropriately balances the interests in preserving the efficiency of criminal proceedings, protecting the integrity of criminal convictions, and providing remedies for violation of consular notification rights. By allowing defendants facing capital charges to raise timely claims that authorities have failed to provide consular notification and access, and to ensure that notification and access is afforded at that time, the Consular Notification Compliance Act further minimizes the risk that a violation could later call into question the conviction or sentence. The Consular Notification Compliance Act provides a limited post-conviction remedy for defendants who were convicted and sentenced to death before the law becomes effective. To obtain relief, such defendants face a high bar: They must establish not only a violation of their consular notification rights but also that the violation resulted in actual prejudice. Going forward, the Consular Notification Compliance Act permits defendants who claim a violation of their VCCR rights an opportunity for meaningful access to their consulate but does not otherwise create any judicially enforceable rights.
More about the Issue
After more than seven years and the efforts of two administrations, the Consular Notification Compliance Act will also finally satisfy U.S. obligations under the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mex. v. US.), 2004 I.C.J. 12 (Mar. 31). As we expressed in April 2010 letters to the Senate Judiciary Committee, this Administration believes that legislation is an optimal way to give domestic legal effect to the Avena judgment and to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Medellin v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491 (2008). The Consular Notification Compliance Act will remove a long-standing obstacle in the U.S. relationship with Mexico and other important allies, and send a strong message to the international community about the U.S. commitment to honoring the U.S. international legal obligations.
Consular Notification Compliance Act (“cnca”) in 2011
United States views on international law (based on the document “Digest of U.S. Practice in International Law”): On June 14, 2011, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate entitled the “Consular Notification Compliance Act,” or CNCA, intended to facilitate compliance with the VCCR, as well as the ruling of the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) in the Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mex. v. US.), 2004 I.C.J. 12 (Mar. 31) (“Avena”). For discussion of Avena and prior U.S. efforts to implement the Avena decision, see this world legal encyclopedia in relation with the year 2004 at 37-43; World Encyclopedia of Law 2005 at 29-30; World Encyclopedia of Law 2007 at 73-77; World Encyclopedia of Law 2008 at 35, 153, 175-215.
Developments
Section 3 of the Consular Notification Compliance Act would require notice, in accordance with the VCCR, to foreign nationals detained by law enforcement of the option to have their consulate contacted. S. 1194, 112th Congress, 1st Session. Section 4 of the Consular Notification Compliance Act would create a right for foreign nationals serving a sentence of death at the time of enactment to federal court review of claims that their conviction or sentence had been prejudiced by the denial of such consular notification. Id.
Details
On June 28, 2011, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote to Senator Leahy expressing support for the CNCA. 157 Cong. Rec. S4216 (July 29, 2011). Their letter appears below. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta also sent a letter of support for the Consular Notification Compliance Act on August 31, 2011. Secretary Panetta's letter is available at (internet link) state.gov/s/l/c8183.htm.
More about the Issue
We thank you for your extraordinary efforts to enact legislation that would facilitate U.S. compliance with its consular notification and access obligations and to express the Administration's strong support for S. 1194, the Consular Notification Compliance Act of 2011 (CNCA).
Consular Notification Compliance Act (“cnca”) in 2011
United States views on international law (based on the document “Digest of U.S. Practice in International Law”): The Consular Notification Compliance Act unmistakably benefits U.S. foreign policy interests. Many of the U.S. important allies and regional institutions with which we work closely—including Mexico, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Brazil and numerous other Latin American countries, and the Council of Europe, among others—have repeatedly and forcefully called upon the United States to fulfill obligations arising from Avena and prior ICJ cases finding notification and access violations. We understand that the Governments of Mexico and the United Kingdom have already written to Congress to express their strong support for this legislation.
More about Consular Notification Compliance Act (“cnca”)
This legislation is particularly important to the U.S. bilateral relationship with Mexico. the U.S. law enforcement partnership with Mexico has reached unprecedented levels of cooperation in recent years. Continued noncompliance with Avena has become a significant irritant that jeopardizes other bilateral initiatives. Mexico considers the resolution of the Avena problem a priority for the U.S. bilateral agenda. The Consular Notification Compliance Act will help ensure that the excellent U.S.-Mexico cooperation in extradition and other judicial proceedings, the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, and in a host of other areas continues apace.
Developments
In sum, the Consular Notification Compliance Act is a carefully crafted, measured, and essential legislative solution to these critical concerns. We thank you again for your work towards finding an appropriate legislative solution to this matter of fundamental importance to the U.S. ability to protect Americans overseas and preserve some of the U.S. most vital international relationships.
Consular Notification Compliance Act (“cnca”)
In relation to the international law practice and Consular Notification Compliance Act (“cnca”) in this world legal Encyclopedia, please see the following section:
Consular Assistence, Judicial Assistece and Related Issues
About this subject:
Consular Notification, Access, and Assistance
Under this topic, in the Encyclopedia, find out information on:
- Avena Implementation and Related Issues
- Legislation
. Note: there is detailed information and resources, in relation with these topics during the year 2011, covered by the entry, in this law Encyclopedia, about Consular Notification Compliance Act (“CNCA”)
Resources
See Also
- Consular Assistence
- Judicial Assistece
- Consular Services
- Avena Implementation
- Legislation