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amnesty international: Wo bleibt das klare Wort von Bush und Kerry gegen Folter?

amnesty international: "Human Dignity denied: Torture and accountability in the 'war on teror?'" - Recommendations

Im Folgenden dokumentieren wir eine Pressemitteilung von amnesty international Deutschland sowie die 12 Forderungen von ai an die Regierung der USA zur Verhinderung von Folter (dieser Teil nur in englisch).

amnesty international Deutschland

PRESSEMITTEILUNGEN

Wo bleibt das klare Wort von Bush und Kerry gegen Folter?

Neuer ai-Bericht gibt Überblick über Folter und Misshandlungen in US-Gewahrsam seit 2001 / ai fordert weiterhin unabhängige Untersuchung der Vorfälle, einschließlich der Rolle der Geheimdienste

Berlin, 27. Oktober 2004 - Die amerikanische Regierung ist in den Skandal um die Folterungen von Gefangenen im Irak, in Guantánamo und in Afghanistan verstrickt. Das belegt ein heute veröffentlichter Bericht von amnesty international (ai). Er räumt mit der Behauptung auf, dass es sich um Einzelfälle gehandelt habe. "Sie misshandelten und folterten im Namen einer ?neuartigen Bedrohung?, die ?neues Denken? erfordere, und verfielen doch in ein Verhaltensmuster, das aus der Geschichte nur allzu bekannt ist: Menschenrechtsverletzungen im Namen der ?nationalen Sicherheit?", sagte der USA-Experte von ai Deutschland, Sumit Bhattacharyya. ai fordert vom neuen Präsidenten der USA die sofortige Einrichtung einer unabhängigen Untersuchungskommission sowie effektive Maßnahmen, die weitere Folter und Misshandlung wirksam verhindern.

Beide Kandidaten der bevorstehenden Präsidentenwahl in den USA sollten sich zudem öffentlich zu einem Engagement gegen Folter in US-Gewahrsam verpflichten. "In ihren Debatten haben die Kandidaten einen unguten stillen Konsens bewiesen: Sie haben beide nichts zu Misshandlungen und Folter an den Gefangenen im Irak, in Guantánamo und in Afghanistan gesagt", sagte Sumit Bhattacharyya. "Bush und Kerry müssen im Falle ihrer Wahl dieses Thema unverzüglich angehen."

"Die offiziellen Untersuchungen, die die US-Regierung unter dem Druck der veröffentlichten Folterbilder aus Abu Ghraib veranlasst hat, sind nur ein erster Schritt", sagte Bhattacharyya. "Wir bestehen auf einer unabhängigen Untersuchungskommission, die Folter und Misshandlungen umfassender untersucht als bisher und missbräuchlichen Verhörmethoden nicht so tolerant gegenübersteht wie die vorangegangenen Untersuchungen." Diese Kommission müsste umfassende Kompetenzen haben, um alle Ebenen und Behörden der Regierung untersuchen zu können. "Auffällig ist etwa, dass wir bisher weder etwas über die Rolle und Vorgehensweise des Geheimdienstes CIA erfahren haben, noch über die geheimen Transfers von Gefangenen zwischen verschiedenen Ländern", sagte Bhattacharyya.

Der neue ai-Bericht enthält einen 12-Punkte-Plan zur Vorbeugung von Folter durch Staatsbedienstete. Der Plan enthält mehr als 60 konkrete Empfehlungen an die US-Behörden.

Der 200-seitige Bericht "Human Dignity denied: Torture and accountability in the 'war on teror?'" ist unter http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr511452004 verfügbar.




Es folgt nun aus diesem Bericht eine Zusammenstellung aller Empfehlungen von ai an die Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten.

Compilation of recommendations under 12-Point Program

Amnesty International continues to call for a commission of inquiry, fully independent of government, into all aspects of the USA’s "war on terror" detentions, with a view to achieving full accountability for any human rights violations that have occurred. Meanwhile, in order to prevent further such abuses, Amnesty International urges the government to consider the organization’s 12-point program against torture and to put in place policies and practices which reflect the absolute prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Amnesty International’s recommendations to the US authorities based on the organization’s 12-Point Program for the Prevention of Torture by Agents of the State

1. Condemn torture

The highest authorities of every country should demonstrate their total opposition to torture. They should condemn torture unreservedly whenever it occurs. They should make clear to all members of the police, military and other security forces that torture will never be tolerated.

The US authorities should:
  • Provide a genuine, unequivocal and continuing public commitment to oppose torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under any circumstances, regardless of where it takes place, and take every possible measure to ensure that all agencies of government and US allies fully comply with this prohibition;
  • Review all government policies and procedures relating to detention and interrogation to ensure that they adhere strictly to international human rights and humanitarian law and standards, and publicly disown those which do not;
  • Make clear to all members of the military and all other government agencies, as well as US allies, that torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment will not be tolerated under any circumstances;
  • Commit to a program of public education on the international prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, including challenging any public discourse that seeks to promote tolerance of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
2. Ensure access to prisoners

Torture often takes place while prisoners are held incommunicado — unable to contact people outside who could help them or find out what is happening to them. The practice of incommunicado detention should be ended. Governments should ensure that all prisoners are brought before an independent judicial authority without delay after being taken into custody. Prisoners should have access to relatives, lawyers and doctors without delay and regularly thereafter.

The US authorities should:
  • End the practice of incommunicado detention;
  • Grant the International Committee of the Red Cross full access to all detainees according to the organization’s mandate;
  • Grant all detainees access to legal counsel, relatives, independent doctors, and to consular representatives, without delay and regularly thereafter;
  • In battlefield situations, ensure where possible that interrogations are observed by at least one military lawyer with full knowledge of international law and standards as they pertain to the treatment of detainees;
  • Grant all detainees access to the courts to be able to challenge the lawfulness of their detention. Presume detainees captured on the battlefield during international conflicts to be prisoners of war unless and until a competent tribunal determines otherwise;
  • Reject any measures that narrow or curtail the effect or scope of the Rasul v. Bush ruling on the right to judicial review of detainees held in Guantánamo or elsewhere, and facilitate detainees’ access to legal counsel for the purpose of judicial review.
3. No secret detention

In some countries torture takes place in secret locations, often after the victims are made to "disappear". Governments should ensure that prisoners are held only in officially recognized places of detention and that accurate information about their arrest and whereabouts is made available immediately to relatives, lawyers and the courts. Effective judicial remedies should be available at all times to enable relatives and lawyers to find out immediately where a prisoner is held and under what authority and to ensure the prisoner’s safety.

The US authorities should:
  • Clarify the fate and whereabouts of those detainees reported to be or to have been in US custody or under US interrogation in the custody of other countries, to whom no outside body including the International Committee of the Red Cross are known to have access, and provide assurances of their well-being. These detainees include but are not limited to those named in the 9/11 Commission Report and in this Amnesty International report as having been in custody at some time in undisclosed locations;
  • End immediately the practice of secret detention wherever it is occurring, and under whichever agency. Hold detainees only in officially recognized places of detention;
  • Not collude with other governments in the practice of "disappearances" or secret detentions, and expose such abuses where the USA becomes aware of them;
  • Maintain an accurate and detailed register of all detainees at every detention facility operated by the US, in accordance with international law and standards. This register should be updated on a daily basis, and made available for inspection by, at a minimum, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the detainees’ relatives and lawyers or other persons of confidence;
  • Make public and regularly update the precise numbers of detainees in US custody specifying the agency under which each person is held, their identity, their nationality and arrest date, and place of detention;
  • Either charge and bring to trial, in full accordance with international law and standards and without recourse to the death penalty, all detainees held in US custody in undisclosed locations, or else release them;
  • Comply without delay with Freedom of Information Act requests, and related court orders, aimed at clarifying the fate and whereabouts of such detainees;
  • Make public and revoke any measures or directives that have been authorized by the President or any other official that could be interpreted as authorizing "disappearances", torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or extrajudicial executions.
4. Provide safeguards during detention and interrogation

All prisoners should be immediately informed of their rights. These include the right to lodge complaints about their treatment and to have a judge rule without delay on the lawfulness of their detention. Judges should investigate any evidence of torture and order release if the detention is unlawful. A lawyer should be present during interrogations. Governments should ensure that conditions of detention conform to international standards for the treatment of prisoners and take into account the needs of members of particularly vulnerable groups. The authorities responsible for detention should be separate from those in charge of interrogation. There should be regular, independent, unannounced and unrestricted visits of inspection to all places of detention.

The US authorities should:
  • Immediately inform anyone taken into US custody of his or her rights, including the right not to be subjected to any form of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; their right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention in a court of law; their right to access to relatives and legal counsel, and their consular rights if a foreign national;
  • Ensure at all times a clear delineation between powers of detention and interrogation;
  • Keep under systematic review interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices, as well as arrangements for the custody and treatment of anyone in US custody, with a view to preventing any cases of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;
  • Ensure that conditions of detention strictly comply with international law and standards;
  • Prohibit the use of isolation, hooding, stripping, dogs, stress positions, sensory deprivation, feigned suffocation, death threats, use of cold water or weather, sleep deprivation and any other forms of torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as interrogation techniques;
  • Bring to trial in accordance with international fair trial standards all detainees held in Guantánamo, or release them;
  • Ensure compliance with all aspects of international law and standards relating to child detainees;
  • Ensure compliance with all international law and standards relating to women detainees;
  • Invite all relevant human rights monitoring mechanisms, especially the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Committee against Torture, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (1980) and the Working Group on Arbitrary detention to visit all places of detention, and grant them unlimited access to these places and to detainees;
  • Grant access to national and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, to all places of detention and all detainees, regardless of where they are held.
5. Prohibit torture in law

Governments should adopt laws for the prohibition and prevention of torture incorporating the main elements of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture) and other relevant international standards. All judicial and administrative corporal punishments should be abolished. The prohibition of torture and the essential safeguards for its prevention must not be suspended under any circumstances, including states of war or other public emergency.

The US authorities should:
  • Enact a federal crime of torture, as called for by the Committee against Torture, that also defines the infliction of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as a crime, wherever it occurs;
  • Amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice to criminalize expressly the crime of torture, as well as a crime of infliction of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, wherever it occurs, in line with the Convention against Torture and other international standards;
  • Ensure that all legislation criminalizing torture defines torture at least as broadly as the UN Convention against Torture;
  • Ensure that legislation criminalizing torture and the infliction of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment covers all persons, regardless of official status or nationality, wherever this conduct occurred, and that it does not allow any exceptional circumstances whatsoever to be invoked as justification for such conduct, or allow the authorization of torture or ill-treatment by any superior officer or public official, including the President.
6. Investigate

All complaints and reports of torture should be promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by a body independent of the alleged perpetrators. The methods and findings of such investigations should be made public. Officials suspected of committing torture should be suspended from active duty during the investigation. Complainants, witnesses and others at risk should be protected from intimidation and reprisals.

US Congress should:
  • Establish an independent commission of inquiry into all aspects of the USA’s "war on terror" detention and interrogation policies and practices. Such a commission should consist of credible independent experts, have international expert input, and have subpoena powers and access to all levels of government, all agencies, and all documents whether classified or unclassified.
The US authorities should:
  • Ensure that all allegations of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment involving US personnel, whether members of the armed forces, other government agencies, medical personnel, private contractors or interpreters, are subject to prompt, thorough, independent and impartial civilian investigation in strict conformity with international law and standards concerning investigations of human rights violations;
  • Ensure that such investigations include cases in which the USA previously had custody of the detainee, but transferred him or her to the custody of another country, or to other forces within the same country, subsequent to which allegations of torture or ill-treatment were made;
  • Ensure that the investigative approach at a minimum complies with the UN Principles on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;
  • Ensure that the investigation of deaths in custody at a minimum comply with the UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, including the provision for adequate autopsies in all such cases;
  • In view of evidence that certain persons held in US custody have been subjected to "disappearance", the US authorities should initiate prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into the allegations by a competent and independent state authority, as provided under Article 13 of the UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
7. Prosecute

Those responsible for torture must be brought to justice. This principle should apply wherever alleged torturers happen to be, whatever their nationality or position, regardless of where the crime was committed and the nationality of the victims, and no matter how much time has elapsed since the commission of the crime. Governments must exercise universal jurisdiction over alleged torturers or extradite them, and cooperate with each other in such criminal proceedings. Trials must be fair. An order from a superior officer must never be accepted as a justification for torture.

The US authorities should:
  • Publicly reject all arguments, including those contained in classified or unclassified government documents, promoting impunity for anyone suspected of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including the ordering of such acts;
  • Bring to trial all individuals – whether they be members of the administration, the armed forces, intelligence services and other government agencies, medical personnel, private contractors or interpreters – against whom there is evidence of having authorized, condoned or committed torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;
  • Any person alleged to have perpetrated an act of "disappearance" should, when the facts disclosed by an official investigation so warrant, be brought before the competent civil authorities for prosecution and trial, in accordance with Article 14 of the UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance;
  • Ensure that all trials for alleged perpetrators comply with international fair trial standards, and do not result in imposition of the death penalty.
8. No use of statements extracted under torture

Governments should ensure that statements and other evidence obtained through torture may not be invoked in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture.

The US authorities should:
  • Ensure that no statement coerced as a result of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including long-term indefinite detention without charge or trial, or any other information or evidence obtained directly or indirectly as the result of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, regardless of who was responsible for such acts, is admitted as evidence against any defendant, except the perpetrator of the human rights violation in question;
  • Revoke the Military Order on the Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism, and abandon trials by military commission;
  • Expose and reject any use of coerced evidence obtained by other governments from people held in their own or US custody;
  • Refrain from transferring any coerced evidence for the use of other governments.
9. Provide effective training

It should be made clear during the training of all officials involved in the custody, interrogation or medical care of prisoners that torture is a criminal act. Officials should be instructed that they have the right and duty to refuse to obey any order to torture.

The US authorities should:
  • Ensure that all personnel involved in detention and interrogation, including all members of the armed forces or other government agencies, private contractors, medical personnel and interpreters, receive full training, with input from international experts, on the international prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and their obligation to expose it;
  • Ensure that all members of the armed forces and members of other government agencies, including the CIA, private contractors, medical personnel and interpreters, receive full training in the scope and meaning of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, as well as international human rights law and standards, with input from international experts;
  • Ensure that full training be similarly provided on international human rights law and standards regarding the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty, including the prohibition on "disappearances", with input from international experts;
  • Ensure that all military and other agency personnel, as well as medical personnel and private contractors, receive cultural awareness training appropriate to whatever theatre of operation they may be deployed into.
10. Provide reparation

Victims of torture and their dependants should be entitled to obtain prompt reparation from the state including restitution, fair and adequate financial compensation and appropriate medical care and rehabilitation.

The US authorities should:
  • Ensure that anyone who has suffered torture or ill-treatment while in US custody has access to, and the means to obtain, full reparation including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, wherever they may reside;
  • Ensure that all those who have been subject to unlawful arrest by the USA receive full compensation.
11. Ratify international treaties

All governments should ratify without reservations international treaties containing safeguards against torture, including the UN Convention against Torture with declarations providing for individual and inter-state complaints. Governments should comply with the recommendations of international bodies and experts on the prevention of torture.

The US authorities should:
  • Make a public commitment to fully adhere to international human rights and humanitarian law and standards – treaties, other instruments, and customary law – and respect the decisions and recommendations of international and regional human rights bodies;
  • Make a public commitment to fully adhere to the Geneva Conventions, and to respecting the advice and recommendations of the International Committee of the Red Cross;
  • Ratify Additional Protocols I and II to the Geneva Conventions;
  • Withdraw all conditions attached to the USA’s ratification of the UN Convention against Torture;
  • Provide the USA’s overdue second report to the Committee against Torture, as requested by the Committee;
  • Withdraw all limiting conditions attached to the USA’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
  • Provide the USA’s overdue reports to the Human Rights Committee;
  • Ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture;
  • Ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child;
  • Ratify the American Convention on Human Rights;
  • Ratify the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons without any reservations and implement it by making enforced disappearances a crime under US law over which US courts have jurisdiction wherever committed by anyone.
  • Ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
12. Exercise international responsibility

Governments should use all available channels to intercede with the governments of countries where torture is reported. They should ensure that transfers of training and equipment for military, security or police use do not facilitate torture. Governments must not forcibly return a person to a country where he or she risks being tortured.

The US authorities should:
  • Withdraw the USA’s understanding to Article 3 of the UN Convention against Torture, and publicly state the USA’s commitment to the principle of non-refoulement, and ensure that no legislation undermines this protection in any way;
  • Cease the practice of "renditions" that bypass human rights protections; ensure that all transfers of detainees between the USA and other countries fully comply with international human rights law.
Source: amnesty international: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Human dignity denied: Torture and accountability in the ‘war on terror’. A report based on Amnesty International’s 12-point Program for the Prevention of Torture by Agents of the State.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR511452004



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