Department of Justice/Human Rights

The Department of Justice/Human Rights (DoJ/HR) is the youngest department in Union's bureaucracy, effectively straddling the line between the Union Naval Department and the Union Administrative Department, while taking the brunt of the former responsibilities from the Bureau of Colonial Administration (BCA). DoJ/HR is primarily responsible for universe-building missions (UBMs) and critical assistance missions (CAMs). Under the DoJ/HR system, UBMs are coded as HEPHAESTUS, while CAMs are coded as HERMES. CAMs are a restructuring of the Second Committee-era Union Colonial Mission, which during the early days of the Third Committee was split into the DoJ/HR and the BCA. Under SecComm, the UCM's role was to identify old colonies and re-assimilate them back into Union's hegemony, as well as establish new colonies. However, with the official rejection of anthrochauvanism, DoJ/HR's role is to report on violations of Unions Utopian Pillars, responding with force when necessary. This is, largely, the same mission, but the details have changed, as have the methods: under the UCM, the UND usually took up the task of pacifying worlds with overwhelming force, but the DoJ/HR maintains its own (much smaller and usually more subtle) Liberator teams for this type of mission, and are considered emancipatory actions rather than assimilationist. UBMs are a second class of mission within the DoJ/HR, dealing with Pillar violations that are "soft" rather than requiring immediate intervention. UBMs typically involve a great deal of liason work with local power-brokers and experts.