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US: Congress Should Enact New Anti-Torture Bill

06 Mar 2007 14:26:29 GMT
Source: Human Rights Watch

(Washington, DC, March 6, 2007) – The US Congress should act quickly to enact a bill introduced today that would end the practice of "extraordinary renditions" of individuals to countries where they risk being tortured, Human Rights Watch said. The legislation, called the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act, was introduced today in the House of Representatives by Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) and 44 others. Under international law, sending someone to torture is just as illegal as directly committing torture. The bill is intended to put a stop to this practice by the US government.

"President Bush claims that the US doesn't hand over people to countries that torture, but unfortunately the record shows otherwise," said Jennifer Daskal, US advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "It's time for Congress to put an end to this disgraceful and illegal practice."

Best-known is the case of Maher Arar, a dual Canadian-Syrian national arrested at New York's Kennedy Airport in September 2002 while he was on his way home to Canada. He was held for nearly two weeks without any opportunity to challenge his detention or imminent transfer in court. He was then flown to Jordan and driven across the border to Syria, where he was detained in a tiny cell for almost a year and was tortured repeatedly, often with cables and electrical cords.

The Canadian government has since cleared Arar of any wrongdoing, issued a formal apology for their role in the case, and paid him a settlement of 10.5 million Canadian dollars (US$8.9 million). But the US government has refused to admit to any mistake in the Arar case or issue any sort of apology, and Arar remains on a US security watchlist that prevents him from traveling to the United States.

Another example is the case of Abu Omar, an Italian cleric who was on his way to a mosque in Milan for noon prayers in February 2003 when US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents allegedly grabbed him off the sidewalk and sent him to a US-Italian air base. Abu Omar was then transferred to Egyptian custody, where he was held incommunicado for almost four years and reportedly tortured. On February 16, an Italian court indicted 26 Americans, including 25 CIA agents, for their role in Abu Omar's kidnapping, enforced disappearance and rendition to Egypt.

The Bush administration has attempted to justify its practice of sending individuals to countries with well-documented records of torture by obtaining what are known as "diplomatic assurances" prior to transfer. These are unenforceable promises from the receiving country that it will not subject the detainee to torture. The Bush administration reportedly relied on such assurances from the Syrian government in the Arar case, even though the US government has long condemned Syria for its record of torture and other mistreatment of those in detention.

"How can the US believe in a no-torture promise from a country that it repeatedly condemns for torture?" said Daskal. "The US government should not be sending individuals to countries that regularly engage in torture and abuse, no matter how elaborate the promise."

Human Rights Watch said that the rendition legislation introduced by Rep. Markey today is designed to put an end to such practices. It would require the US secretary of state to publish a list of countries that regularly engage in torture, based on the State Department's own human rights reporting, and prohibit the US government from transferring any individual to such countries, absent a certification of changed circumstances. The legislation makes it clear that diplomatic assurances are not a sufficient basis for such a certification.

Rep. Markey's proposed legislation comes at a time of growing pressure on Congress to repudiate the abusive detention and interrogation policies adopted by the Bush administration over the past five years, said Human Rights Watch. In a letter to the Congressional leadership on February 22, a broad coalition of human rights, religious, and other interested groups laid out 10 needed steps to reverse course and begin the process of restoring US moral authority on the rule of law and human rights. Enacting legislation to stop renditions to torture is high on that agenda.

"The practice of extraordinary rendition not only destroys lives and families, but also the reputation of the US around the world," said Daskal. "Congress now has a chance to reverse course and protect the very ideals that the United States is based upon."

The practice of sending individuals to countries where there is a likelihood that they will be subject to torture is prohibited under international law. The prohibition is explicitly spelled out in the Convention Against Torture, which the United States ratified in 1994.

The Bush administration, however, has taken the position that the legal obligations of the United States under the Convention Against Torture, including the obligation not to transfer someone to torture, do not apply if the individual is arrested and detained outside the United States. The United Nations Committee Against Torture, the international body responsible for monitoring compliance with the Convention, in May 2006 rejected this interpretation of the treaty. As the committee emphasized, the United States' legal obligation not to transfer individuals to torture applies to anyone in US custody and control, no matter where they are located in the world.

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Last updated:Tue Mar 6 14:30:49 2007