Issue Coordinator: Joan Weaver

Issue overview

What you can do

Sources of information

Issue Overview

In its campaign to end torture, Human Rights First  notes, “There are now dozens of well-documented allegations of torture, abuse, and otherwise questionable detention and interrogation practices that appear to have been imposed upon individuals held in U.S. custody at detention facilities from Iraq to Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere around the world.”

We in HELADA have been shocked and horrified at reports of inhumane treatment of detainees, including the systematic exporting (“extraordinary rendition”) of detainees  (such as of Canadian Maher Arar to Syria); the CIA’s “ghosting” program of hiding unregistered detainees; the suspected or confirmed homicides of detainees in U.S. custody (27 in Iraq and Afghanistan between August 2002 and November 2004); the Pentagon’s proposed detention guidelines that contravene the Geneva Conventions.

A recent (4/25/05) Human Rights Watch report disclosed that “Abu Ghraib [where abuses were revealed over a year ago] was, in fact, only the tip of the iceberg.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, and HRF have filed a number of damage cases against U.S. officials and others concerning torture, rendition, and the creation of policies and practices that violate domestic and international laws.  “We undermine our own democracy by letting these crimes go un-addressed,” said CCR Senior Attorney Jennifer Green.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) has noted that “when ‘the U.S.’ has to confront a problem, because ours is a democracy, the people of the U.S. have to confront that problem. But ... there are many who turn away. They do not want to think about the disgusting and sickening images, or to consider the possibility that the U.S. military, or its private contractors, might be torturers acting in the name of the people of the United States.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Ask your representatives in Congress to:

1. Speak out for humane treatment of detainees! “An absolute prohibition against torture is embodied in international human rights law. Torture is considered unacceptable under any circumstances, and no emergency or extreme situation can justify its use.” (FCNL)

2. Prohibit the outsourcing of torture by the practice known as extraordinary rendition.

3. Support House bill HR 952, sponsored by Rep Edward Markey, joined by 61 (as of 5/10) co-sponsors

4. Support Senate bill S654 sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy, co-sponsored (as of 5/10) by Senators Dodd, Durbin, Kennedy, and Feingold.  

5. Support the creation of an Independent Commission to investigate US policies, hold officials accountable, and ensure humane treatment for all detainees.  

6. Report the actions he or she is taking to hold administration and military officials accountable for humane treatment of detainees. Ask for a reply. Follow up.

Petitions

Sources of Information