CIVICUS

FROM THE DESK OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

United States: Legitimising Torture
By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary General

Issued Date: 12 March 2008

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

When activists were tortured at the hands of the South African Apartheid state police, we looked to the democratic countries of the world to condemn police brutality and call on our government to abide by internationally recognised human rights. Because of their active criticism of the use of torture, countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, among others, were able to use their relatively clean records to shame and pressure the South African state.

While it is debatable whether these countries may have employed clandestine torture in covert politics of the cold war, none of them publicly acknowledged or condoned its use. And because of this, they were able to use their “moral authority” (premised supposedly on democracy and freedom) to influence the less democratic states.

In a frightening turn, however, torture has made its way back into the public debate, with the governments that supposedly advocate democracy and freedom at the helm of its defence.

Just last week, US President George Bush all but acknowledged the use of torture against suspected terrorists, and in vetoing a bill outlawing torture, essentially condoned its practice by US officials. Specifically, the 2008 Intelligence Authorisation Act could have applied the US Army Field Manual on Interrogations to all government agencies, including the CIA. The Manual, which currently applies only to the Department of Defense, prohibits specific acts of torture and abuse, including waterboarding (simulated drowning), and authorises an array of legitimate interrogation methods.

This decision follows the release of shocking pictures of abuse of detainees by American soldiers in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison in 2004, and ongoing allegations of the torture of Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Furthermore, during a recent congressional testimony, the director of the CIA admitted that the agency has used waterboarding techniques on detainees.

The US ratified the 1984 Convention Against Torture on 18 April, 1988, becoming the 63^rd nation to sign the Convention, specifically outlawing and defining torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

In advocating for the ratification of the Convention, the US President at the time, Ronald Reagan, recognised the key role of the US in its development and stated, “By giving its advice and consent to ratification of this Convention, the Senate of the United States will demonstrate unequivocally our desire to bring an end to the abhorrent practice of torture.”

As the tide changes, however, this signatory to the Convention (and many others) appears to be justifying torture in the context of the war on terrorism. Rather than ensuring the war on terror protects basic human rights - such as freedom from torture - it is in fact allowing it to legitimate such practices.

In South Africa, during apartheid, the notion of terrorism was used as an instrument of widespread and systemic human rights violations by the regime. But even the apartheid state, as brutal as it was, publicly denied its use. The evidence of widespread and routine torture and ill-treatment accumulated by health and legal practitioners and human rights monitoring organisations was simply denied. Even such a pariah state knew that publicising its use of cruel interrogation methods would place it under an even hotter international spotlight.

For a democratic state, notwithstanding some of its own democratic deficits and with its global standing seriously waning, to publicly admit and condone torture, undermines the efficacy of the Convention Against Torture, and also calls into question the positive work of many American activists and progressive politicians. The statement it makes is clear - if you can justify it, torture is okay (look, even the Americans do it!).

The sometimes scathing US State Department Reports, highlighting the abuse of detainees in numerous countries, will now seem hollow and insincere. The efforts of US politicians to advocate for political freedom and good treatment of detainees are now called into question.

Even more worrying is that evidence obtained through official cruelty is now being used in military commission trials at Guantanamo Bay. As a result the US administration is undermining its own judicial system, meaning many who have been accused under terrorism laws undoubtedly receive unfair trials. As Human Rights First points out in its recent report, documenting the use of such evidence, research has consistently shown that suspects who are tortured often provide false or misleading information merely to stop the abuse or because their mental or physical functions have been impaired.

The connection between torture and false or misleading information was recently popularly demonstrated in the Hollywood film, Rendition. The film highlights yet another questionable practice of the US government - extraordinary rendition, whereby the United States engages in torture by proxy through the transferring of suspects to countries known to employ harsh interrogation techniques.

We at CIVICUS join civil society organisations throughout the US who have expressed disbelief and outrage with President Bush’s decision to veto the bill. An appeal published by Common Dreams, an alternative newswire, asked their supporters to stand up and exclaim “That's not my America. My America Doesn't Torture!”. As an intern ational organisation, we join this appeal in stating that America is not only letting down its citizens, but those in states whose governments are influenced by American policies and who have long sought legitimacy for their own brutal practices.

The real test of democracy is not refraining from human rights abuses when all is going well in a society; rather, the real test is whether we can hold true to these values when there are intern al and external threats. Undermining certain fundamental tenets of democracy in the name of the fight against terrorism is not the way to go. It impoverishes the idea of democracy, the practice of human rights and in the end, undercuts our fight against terrorism.

Warm regards,

Kumi Naidoo

To send you comments, suggestions or contributions of articles, e-mail editor@civicus.org.

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