Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 21 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Proceeds of Crime (Gross Human Rights Abuses) Bill 2020: Discussion

Mr. Brendan Bruen:

To expand on that point, many other crimes involve human rights abuses. Drug trafficking, in and of itself, involves human rights abuse. In a narrow conception of human rights abuses, as set out in the definition, that is somewhat separate to those other offences. To return to Deputy Howlin’s point, when we are looking at an asset that results or is obtained from a certain type of conduct, we are also looking to see if that asset was obtained from drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or fraud. I refer to the asset, in and of itself, not having resulted or having been obtained from the human rights abuse aspect of such an offence.