Demonstrating the Obama Administration’s support for the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Civil Rights Division’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Samuel Bagenstos, testified yesterday at a hearing  held by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law.

As Mr. Bagenstos told the Subcommittee:

United States ratification of CEDAW would signal our nation’s unequivocal and continued commitment to advancing the rights and freedoms of women around the world. We know that when women are denied access to their basic rights, families, communities and entire nations suffer. CEDAW provides an important framework through which the United States can work with other governments, the international community, and individuals around the world to advance and promote the rights of women.

The United States is already a global leader in protecting women’s rights, and our existing laws and practices are broadly consistent with the requirements of CEDAW.  During his testimony, Mr. Bagenstos discussed the various federal laws that protect the rights of women, and highlighted some recent actions taken by the Civil Rights Division to enforce those laws.

For example, on August 6, 2010, a federal jury in Detroit, Michigan returned a $115,000 verdict against Glenn Johnson, Ronnie Peterson and First Pitch Properties, LLC in United States v. Peterson, a case under the Fair Housing Act alleging sexual harassment against female tenants.  The United States presented evidence that a property manager subjected six women to severe and pervasive sexual harassment, ranging from unwelcome sexual comments and sexual advances, to requiring sexual favors in exchange for their tenancy. The United States also presented evidence that the owner of the properties knew that Johnson was sexually harassing tenants, but did nothing to stop it.

The Division recently filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its Department of Corrections alleging that Massachusetts is engaged in a pattern or practice of employment discrimination against women based on its use of a physical fitness test that disproportionately screens out female applicants for entry-level correctional officer jobs. There is no evidence that the State’s use of the test is job related and consistent with business necessity – for example, that the test effectively predicts job performance. As a result, the Justice Department is seeking a Court order that the State stop using the challenged test, adopt and use a physical fitness test for correctional officer that complies with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and provide remedial relief for those female applicants who were harmed by the use of the unlawful test.

In the area of human trafficking, an example of a successful prosecution is the recent case of United States v. Afolabi. In this case, three defendants were convicted and the lead defendant was sentenced to 27 years in prison for holding young West African women and girls, aged 10 to 19, in servitude in hair braiding salons in New Jersey. The defendants worked these girls around the clock and seized all of the profit the victims generated each month. They held the victims in their service through threats, physical assaults, psychological intimidation, and sexual abuse. In addition to the sentences of imprisonment, the defendants were ordered to pay the victims over $3.9 million in restitution.

In addition, the Justice Department works to aggressively protect the rights of women by using the tools provided in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), enacted in 1994.  Since the law’s enactment, the Justice Department has prosecuted more than 2,600 cases under criminal provisions that target domestic violence abusers. These cases often involve the most aggressive and violent abusers who cross state lines to pursue their victims.

The Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) administers grant programs that support:

• training for police, prosecutors, and court personnel in responding to violence against women;
• solutions for the unique barriers faced by rural communities in addressing such violence;
• the provision of legal assistance, transitional housing, and supervised visitation services to victims;
• tools to address the special needs of victims who are elderly and those with disabilities; and,
• responses to the high rate of violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women. 

In the six-month reporting period from January to June 2009 alone, OVW grantees reported that more than 125,300 victims were served and more than 253,000 services (including shelter, civil legal assistance and crisis intervention) were provided to victims.

These are just a sample of the many efforts taken by the Justice Department and the Obama Administration to protect and defend the rights of women and girls.  The Department strongly supports ratification of CEDAW, “both to express more forcefully our commitment to the rights of women in the United States and to further opportunities for girls and women around the world.”

The following post originally appeared on the Office of Management and Budget blog courtesy of Jeffrey Zients.

Over 57,000 of you have spoken, and the winner of the 2010 SAVE Award is Trudy Givens of Portage, Wisconsin.

Trudy is a 19-year veteran of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, working now as a Business Administrator in the FCI Oxford facility in Oxford, Wisconsin. Over the course of her career, Trudy noticed that copies from the Federal Register — the federal government’s official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents– were delivered to her workplace several times per week, but employees rarely referenced the documents. The Federal Register was made available online years ago, and most members of the interested public reference that online version now. Trudy thought that in keeping with the President’s spirit of cutting out waste and going green, the government should end the printing and mailing of thousands of Federal Registers to employees.

The budget team at OMB did a little digging and found that Trudy was right – most folks access the register online. But the Register is still sent to thousands of federal employees in hard copies every day. While statute requires that hard copies be available, allowing recipients to opt-in for hard copy delivery could yield savings associated with printing and postage. When a similar “opt-in” (with fee) option was offered to the public, the number of hard copies mailed was reduced from roughly 25,000 to 500 recipients. This sounded like a commonsense idea for savings to us – and it did to thousands of you as well. Trudy won the contest with nearly 20,000 votes. The runners up were: Marjorie Cook from the Department of Agriculture, Paul Behe from the Department of Homeland Security, and Thomas Koenning from the Department of Labor.

As this year’s winner, Trudy will be invited to meet the President to discuss her idea with him in person.

But if you were rooting for one of the other three finalists, not to worry. All the finalists and all SAVE Award submissions have been sent to the agencies for potential action and inclusion in the 2012 Budget. Last year, a total of 20 SAVE ideas made it into the President’s FY2011 budget – including the winner and the other three finalists – identifying millions of dollars in savings.

So our gratitude goes out to all of the federal employees who submitted ideas to boost government performance and thanks to everyone who voted for the 2010 SAVE Award. Each of us in the federal government has the ability and the responsibility to pitch in to make every tax dollar count. Not just during the SAVE Award competition, but all year round. And it is this commitment to making government work better for you, exemplified by our finalists Trudy, Marjorie, Paul and Thomas, that we honor today.

You can vote to support Trudy’s idea for the SAVE Award at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/save-award

When longtime Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons employee Trudy Givens last noticed a copy of the Federal Register in her office, the same simple thought that had been occurring to her for more than a decade struck her once again: “Why?”

When asked what inspired her idea, Givens, of Portage, Wisconsin, said:

“Only one time during my 19 years have I researched a government decision in the Federal Register. I believe allowing agencies to ‘opt-out’ of receiving the Federal Register, or making it available online only, would not only save the government money, but also comply with the Paper Reduction Act of 1995, reduce the use of our natural resources, and eliminate excess waste in our nation’s landfills.”

Someone at the White House agreed. Givens’s idea for ending the mailing of thousands of federal registers to employees was one of the four finalists this year for the SAVE Award, selected out of more than 18,000 submissions by federal employees for saving tax dollars and making government work better based on first-hand experiences. Unlike last year, there were more than 164,000 votes cast by peers this year as a result of new technology, which helped to elevate Givens’s idea to the top.

The statistics suggest why. According to the White House, the Federal Register – the government’s official daily publication for agency rules, proposed rules, and notices; executive orders; and other presidential documents – is currently mailed to approximately 8,000 federal employees every workday, even though most of the interested public now accesses the Federal Register online. When a similar “opt-in” option was offered to the public, the number of hard copies mailed was reduced from roughly 25,000 to 500.

Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients explained the origins of the contest in a White House video:

“It’s a perennial slogan of politicians that they want to cut out the waste, fraud, and abuse in government – if you wonder what exactly they’re referring to, you’re right to. Too often, it never gets past the rhetoric stage. But you probably didn’t know that last year, your government came together to really start rooting out that waste… The SAVE Award is part of this effort. The President has always said that the best ideas usually don’t come from the Washington or from the top. They come from the folks on the front lines.”

The three other SAVE Award finalist ideas this year include proposals to post public notices for seized property online, not in newspapers; to stop the express delivery of empty USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service containers; and to require mine operators to use online forms. According to the award criteria, proposals must improve the quality of output at lower costs, simplify processes to reduce administrative burden, or improve the speed of government operations to improve efficiency.

Givens hopes her idea prevails so that the government will save money – and our planet will be healthy. But there’s one more incentive to help this longtime Department of Justice employee in her quest for efficiency: if she wins, Givens gets to meet and chat with the President of the United States – not half bad as a perk for what began years ago as only a simple observation of “why.”

You can vote to support Trudy’s idea for the SAVE Award at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/save-award

Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary G. Grindler recently invested 23 new immigration judges during a ceremony held at the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) headquarters, marking a roughly 10 percent increase in the judges corps in just one day.

 Immigration judges conduct formal court proceedings to determine whether an individual from a foreign country should be allowed to remain in the United States.

Chief Immigration Judge, Brian M. O’Leary welcomed the new arrivals:

“We have made great progress since we began our robust immigration judge hiring initiative earlier this year. These new immigration judges bring the judge corps of our 59 immigration courts to 262, and we expect to further enhance the corps by additional immigration judges before the end of the calendar year.”

The new judges will preside over immigration courts located through the country.

Before being selected for the job, applicants are thoroughly reviewed. First, EOIR human resources department refer eligible applicants to the Office of the Chief Immigration Judge. Then, four panels of assistant chief immigration judges screen the applications according to the following criteria:

• ability to demonstrate the appropriate temperament to serve as a judge;
• knowledge of immigration laws and procedures or of a comparable area of law;
• substantial litigation experience, preferably in a high-volume context; experience handling complex legal issues;
• experience conducting administrative hearings;
• and knowledge of judicial practices and procedures.

The most highly recommended candidates are selected for interviews. Top candidates are then referred for a second review and interviewed by a panel of senior Department of Justice officials. The Attorney General then makes the final selections.

To learn more about this new class of immigration judges, read their full biographies on the EOIR website.

The following blog post appears courtesy of Laurie O. Robinson, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs

Fiscal year 2009 was a watershed for the Office of Justice Programs (OJP). A new President and a new Attorney General took office during a recession that threatened vital public safety services in many communities. With funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, OJP was able to help law enforcement departments, victim assistance organizations, and other criminal and juvenile justice agencies hire and retain staff.

This funding, as well as funds from fiscal year 2009 appropriations, allowed the Office of Justice Programs to make more than twice the number of grants awarded in the previous fiscal year, exponentially increasing the assistance provided to communities across the country.Our annual report details the commitment to outreach, collaboration, innovative approaches, evidence-based programs and practices and careful stewardship of the funds entrusted to OJP by Congress and the American people.

Each chapter includes highlights of accomplishments that were funded by fiscal year 2009 appropriations and by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Each chapter also provides real world examples that demonstrate how OJP programs have made a positive difference in the lives of Americans.In FY 2009, through a series of listening sessions and regular consultations with our partners in the field, we reestablished important relationships with our state, local, and tribal stakeholders.

We also made great strides in ensuring the central role of science in criminal and juvenile justice, and launched a new Evidence Integration Initiative to help instill a focus on data-driven approaches across the agency—and the field. One of our primary goals was to ensure transparency and accountability in all stages of the grants process. Our office is working to fulfill our duties to the American taxpayers and our partners in the field through principles of diligence, fairness, and openness.

The strong commitment of this Administration, this Department of Justice, and OJP to the safety of America’s communities should be evident in this report and I am pleased to share it with you. We are moving forward, and our momentum is strong.

For more information on our work, download and read the full report (PDF).

The Justice Department commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act at an event last week highlighting the department’s achievements over a decade of enforcement.

Attorney General Eric Holder was joined by Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez of the Civil Rights Division, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach, chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys Civil Rights Subcommittee.

The Attorney General and other officials praised the broad partnerships developed within the department’s components and those with other federal, state and local law enforcement as well as non-governmental victim assistance organizations that have worked with the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit to bring record numbers of human trafficking prosecutions. 

The Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General Perez praised the partnerships among the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Labor, and the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys for their collaboration on the forthcoming initiatives.

Attorney General Holder said:

“This crime is an affront to our common humanity.  While we have made tremendous strides in restoring the rights of human trafficking victims and bringing traffickers to justice, this depraved crime continues to deprive too many of the most vulnerable members of our society of their individual rights and freedoms.”

The Attorney General also commended the collaboration among the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and Mexican authorities on a Bilateral Enforcement Initiative to combat human trafficking networks operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Commenting on the event, Assistant Attorney General Perez added:

“Since the formation of the specialized Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit in 2007, we have demonstrated an unflagging commitment to prosecuting those who exploit other human beings for modern-day slavery.  As human trafficking networks grow increasingly sophisticated, so must our efforts to eradicate them.  With the introduction of new forthcoming initiatives, we will be coordinating our efforts more effectively than ever before to ensure that human traffickers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Assistant Attorney General Breuer commended the many parts of the Criminal Division that play important roles in supporting efforts to combat human trafficking:

“Since the passage of the TVPA, the Criminal Division has partnered closely with the Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, other federal agencies, and state and local authorities to bring human traffickers to justice and seek appropriate penalties for their crimes.  Human trafficking is a reprehensible crime, and children are often the victims of the depraved criminal schemes that we prosecute. Human trafficking truly is a “modern form of slavery.  [Our] efforts are a true testament to what the U.S. government can achieve when we collaborate and share resources, and the Criminal Division is absolutely committed to working with its law enforcement partners even more closely in the future.”

The Civil Rights Division also released a report on its enforcement of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act over the past decade.

Combating human trafficking is a top priority of the Justice Department.  In each of the past two fiscal years, the Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices have brought record numbers of human trafficking cases.