Web pages about "USA"

Tireless witness to state killing

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:08:06 +0000

“When I walked out of the execution chamber, I had just watched a man electrocuted to death. He looked at my face before they killed him. The cold protocol that all the guards followed shocked me. I came outside the prison into the dark and vomited."

Sister Helen Prejean’s remarkable life has had many turning points, none greater than early on the morning on 5 April 1984, when she witnessed the execution of a man who had become her friend.

It was a defining moment for Sister Prejean, whose life was changed forever when in the early 1980s she went to live among poor African Americans in New Orleans. She left a comfortable middle-class life in the suburbs to discover “another America, one which my eyes had been blind to”. She remembers vividly her shock at seeing so much poverty, injustice and police abuse.

Soon afterwards, she became a pen pal to Patrick Sonnier, who was on death row. The letters soon became visits, and two and a half years later came the moment from which there was no turning back – being with Patrick Sonnier when he was executed.

“It just took my life and turned it inside out. I had been a witness to a state killing so I had to tell the story. I also became involved with the victim’s family and saw their suffering and how the death penalty had nothing to do with their healing. If anything, it prolonged their waiting for this illusory healing, which was supposed to come to them by sitting on the front row and watching Patrick die.”

Her involvement with Patrick Sonnier turned Sister Prejean into a formidable opponent of capital punishment. She translated her experiences into a Pulitzer Prize nominated book, Dead Man Walking, which then formed the basis of the film written and directed by Tim Robbins.

Sister Prejean also took on, with considerable success, two of the world’s most powerful institutions – the Roman Catholic Church and the US state ¬– and shows no signs of relaxing. Now approaching her 70th birthday, she is still tirelessly campaigning around the world to end capital punishment. She gives around 100 talks a year and continues to visit men and women on death row.

Sister Prejean talks passionately about the many levels of injustice she believes are associated with capital punishment – the racism, the scapegoating of the poor, the damage it does to those who administer it and to society at large, the killing of innocent people and the robbing human beings of their dignity.

“There is no dignity in killing a defenceless person,” she says. “This was the heart of my dialogue with Pope John Paul in 1997. I said that Amnesty International has a principled stand, no exceptions, but the Catholic Church doesn’t. I showed him where he had left a loophole for the death penalty - in his encyclical called The gospel of life - ‘in cases of absolute necessity’. I said to him that you can’t leave it up to governments because they’ll always say it’s absolutely necessary.

“When the Pope came to St Louis in 1999, for the first time he put the death penalty along with all the other pro-life issues. He said no to the death penalty because it is cruel, and unnecessary because we have prisons, and then he added that 'even those among us who have done a terrible crime have a dignity’.

“So our task is to teach people, now we’ve got the policy straight!” says Sister Prejean. “There are 65 million Catholics in the USA. The states that have the most Catholics in them are the states that use the death penalty the least. We can end the death penalty by mobilizing the 65 million Catholics.”

She says Amnesty International taught her that human rights are inalienable, that they are not given by governments to people for good behaviour and cannot be taken away from them for bad behaviour.
“Amnesty became my teacher – far quicker than my own Catholic church, which [at that point] had a compromised position on the death penalty. Amnesty has also taught me about spirit and about how you organize people, and how you go about educating people.”

One of the main lessons Sister Prejean learned was to begin with simple methods. “Write a letter to someone," she suggests. "If we let that rose fully unfurl it will change our whole life because it is about standing up for the dignity of each person. It is not so much they [the prisoners on death row] who need to be changed. It is us. It will teach us we have one life – and it counts. We’ve got to do essential things, not trivial things.”

President-elect Obama recommits to closing Guantánamo and ending torture

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:36:27 +0000

US President-elect Obama said in an interview on Sunday that he will take “early action” on closing the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay and ensuring that the USA does not resort to torture. He told the CBS programme 60 Minutes on Sunday: "I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantánamo, and I will follow through on that.

"I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm gonna make sure that we don't torture."

Amnesty International said on Monday that President-elect Obama's statement is an important a step in the right direction.

"Amnesty International urges him to seize the initiative after taking office in January and to prioritize ending all internationally unlawful detention and interrogation practices by the USA,” said Rob Freer, Amnesty International's researcher on the USA.

"We urge president-elect Obama to turn his words into action within the first 100 days of his presidency and demonstrate his commitment to meeting the USA's international obligations, including by signing an executive order prohibiting torture and other ill-treatment, as defined under international law.

“President George W. Bush also said that the USA would not torture, but the use of "waterboarding" and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" against detainees held in secret CIA custody and the torture or other ill-treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo have told a different story.

"They reveal the sad and disturbing fact that the USA has authorized and justified the use of torture and other unlawful practices in the name of national security,” said Rob Freer.

Amnesty International is also calling on the President-elect to support an independent commission of inquiry into all aspects of the USA's detention and interrogation practices in the "war on terror", and to ensure full accountability for human rights violations committed in that context.

The organization has written to President-elect Obama to urge him to ensure that closing Guantánamo, ending torture and other ill-treatment, and supporting a commission of inquiry, are among his priorities for his first 100 days in office.

Amnesty International welcomes commitment to close Guantánamo

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:43:14 +0000

President-elect Obama’s statement in a CBS interview yesterday that he will follow through on his commitment to close the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay is an important step in the right direction, Amnesty International said today.

"Amnesty International welcomes the president-elect’s confirmation that he intends to close Guantánamo and ensure that the USA does not use torture. We urge him to seize the initiative after taking office in January and to prioritize ending all internationally unlawful detention and interrogation practices by the USA,” said Rob Freer, Amnesty International's researcher on the USA.

“We urge president-elect Obama to turn his words into action within the first 100 days of his presidency and demonstrate his commitment to meeting the USA's international obligations, including by signing an executive order prohibiting torture and other ill-treatment, as defined under international law.

“President George W. Bush also said that the USA would not torture, but the use of "waterboarding" and other "enhanced interrogation techiques" against detainees held in secret CIA custody and the torture or other ill-treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo have told a different story. They reveal the sad and disturbing fact that the USA has authorized and justified the use of torture and other unlawful practices in the name of national security,” said Rob Freer.

Amnesty International is also calling on the President-elect to support an independent commission of inquiry into all aspects of the USA's detention and interrogation practices in the "war on terror", and to ensure full accountability for human rights violations committed in that context.

The organization has written to President-elect Obama to urge him to ensure that closing Guantánamo, ending torture and other ill-treatment, and supporting a commission of inquiry, are among his priorities for his first 100 days in office.

A copy of Amnesty International’s checklist for President-elect Obama is available at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/117/2008/en

Europe urged to protect Guantanamo detainees who cannot be returned home

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:00:10 +0000

Five human rights groups have called on European governments to provide humanitarian protection to Guantánamo detainees who will not be charged with any crime but who cannot be returned to their country of origin for fear of torture or other human rights violations.

Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, Reprieve and the International Federation for Human Rights urged governments to accept Guantanamo detainees into their countries and ensure they are provided with adequate support.

The call to work with the new US administration on this important step towards the closure of the detention facility at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was made after a two-day closed strategic workshop in Berlin. The workshop was convened by the NGOs with other international actors active on the issue of humanitarian protection.

Around 50 of the detainees currently held in Guantánamo, who the US government has said it does not intend to charge, cannot lawfully be sent back to their countries of origin because they could face torture and other ill-treatment. They come from countries including China, Libya, Russia, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan.

A joint statement by the human right groups highlighted the "primary and ongoing legal responsibility held by the USA to find solutions for these individuals after years of unlawful detention, including providing them with a safe place to live and receive rehabilitation,"

"Everyone appears to rightly agree that Guantánamo must be closed, and President-elect Obama has said that he will close it," said Daniel Gorevan, Counter Terror with Justice Campaign Manager at Amnesty International. "Clearly, other governments can help make this happen by offering protection to individuals who cannot be released to their own countries. This would have a double effect: helping to end the ordeal of an individual unlawfully held in violation of his human rights, and helping end the international human rights scandal that is Guantánamo."

"This is a key opportunity for both sides of the Atlantic to move beyond the misguided acts of the 'war on terror': rendition, secret detention, and torture," said Cori Crider, Staff Attorney at Reprieve. "President-elect Obama says he will close Guantánamo -- the question is when and how. One of Reprieve's clients was sent back to Tunisia, drugged, hit, and threatened with the rape of his wife and daughter.

"Another is fighting, even now, to stay in Guantánamo because Tunisia threatened him with 'water torture in the barrel.' The US still asserts total authority to send him back. Europe can send a powerful message by reaching out to Obama and providing a safe alternative for these few people.”

"President-elect Obama has committed to closing Guantánamo, but he is going to need Europe's help," said Joanne Mariner, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Director at Human Rights Watch. "European governments could provide much-needed assistance by agreeing to take in some of the detainees who cannot be sent back home."

President-elect Obama: 100 days to demonstrate commitment to human rights

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:31:44 +0000

The election of Barack Obama to the US presidency opens new opportunities for an end to the seven-year assault on human rights by the US administration.

Amnesty International urged US President-elect Obama to make human rights central to his new administration on Wednesday. The organization is calling for certain concrete steps in his first 100 days in office that would demonstrate a genuine commitment to bringing the USA into line with its international obligations.

The new president will have the authority to rectify some of the unlawful policies and practices adopted during his predecessor’s term in office in the name of counter-terrorism and national security.

Counter terror with justice: a human rights challenge

In the first 100 days, Amnesty International is calling on the new administration to:

announce a plan and date to close Guantánamo;
issue an executive order to ban torture and other ill-treatment, as defined under international law;
ensure that an independent commission to investigate abuses committed by the US government in its “war on terror” is set up.

These demands are part of a “checklist” of actions Amnesty International is asking the new US President to take during the first 100 days in office.

Promoting human rights at home and abroad

Amnesty International has numerous human rights concerns in relation to the USA. The organization is seeking a meeting with President-elect Obama to discuss how the USA will take forward policies that will advance internationally recognized human rights both at home and abroad.

Take action

Call on President-elect Barack Obama to demonstrate a commitment to human rights in his first 100 days in office.

Amnesty International calls on President-elect Barack Obama to put human rights at the heart of government

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:13:46 +0000

Amnesty International today urged US President-elect Barack Obama to show true leadership by making human rights central to his new administration. The organization is calling on the new government to take concrete steps in its first 100 days which would show genuine commitment to bring the USA into line with its international obligations.

In the first 100 days of the presidency, Amnesty International is specifically calling on the new administration to:

announce a plan and date for the closure of the detention centre at Guantánamo,
issue an executive order to ban torture and other ill-treatment, as defined under international law and applicable to all US agents, and
ensure the setting up of an independent commission to investigate abuses committed by the USA in its war on terror.

These demands form part of a “checklist” of actions Amnesty International is asking the new US President to take during his first 100 days in office.

“President-elect Barack Obama must make a clean break from the US government’s detention policies and practices adopted by the previous administration. Millions of people, politicians and religious leaders in the United States and across the world are demanding these changes. Now is the time to make them happen,” said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“President-elect Barack Obama must reverse the damage done at home and abroad by the US government’s unlawful actions in the name of national security,” said Larry Cox, executive director at Amnesty International USA. “The US government’s policies during the past eight years have violated the basic rights of thousands of individuals, damaged the United States’ credibility on human rights issues and strained diplomatic relations. With the entire world watching, and the election of a new President and Congress, it's time to commit the United States to its international obligations and ensure that the rule of law will be the foundation for its policies.”

Amnesty International is also urging President-elect Barack Obama to push forward policies that will advance internationally recognized human rights. The US government should also provide principled leadership in stopping mass atrocities against civilians in places such as Darfur, in ending the continued violence against women and girls in the USA and abroad, supporting human rights defenders and the international system of justice with the International Criminal Court at its heart.

“Human rights must be an integral aspect of every policy, action and issue embarked on by President-elect Barack Obama and his administration,” said Larry Cox. “Although the current economic circumstances will dominate much of the public debate and international agenda, a strong and vigilant human rights agenda must also be a priority. The importance of reversing the legacy of the US as a human rights abuser cannot be overstated."

"The new Administration must focus on righting some of the wrongs of the Bush Administration and restoring the US as a human rights champion at home and abroad," said Irene Khan.

During the first 100 days of the new administration, Amnesty International will be mobilizing its members and supporters in the USA and around the world to call on the new US President and Congress to take immediate steps to demonstrate a commitment to human rights and urgently address pressing issues at home and abroad.

Note to Editors

Larry Cox and Irene Khan are available for media interviews.

For a full copy of the checklist, please see: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/117/2008/en

Amnesty International has requested an early meeting with the President-elect to discuss the human rights agenda of the new administration.

Show real leadership in human rights

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:18:11 +0000

The attacks in the USA on 11 September 2001 were a crime against humanity. Since then, the USA has committed grave human rights violations in the name of countering terrorism.

Suspects have been abducted and covertly transported to secret US-run facilities or transferred to the custody of other governments where they have faced torture.

Individuals have been victims of enforced disappearance. Some remain unaccounted for.

Hundreds of people have been unlawfully detained in conditions that have amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.

US officials have effectively admitted that the USA has used torture and other ill-treatment and have reserved the right to do so again.

The response of the US government to the public exposure of these human rights violations has been plainly inadequate, and at worst it has amounted to helping perpetrators go unpunished for crimes under international law.

President-elect Barack Obama must take immediate steps after taking office to end this assault on human rights.

Landslide UN vote in favour of developing an Arms Trade Treaty

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:10:57 +0000

One hundred and forty-seven states voted overwhelmingly at the United Nations on Friday to move forward with work on the main elements of an Arms Trade Treaty. Only two countries voted against – the USA and Zimbabwe.

"This big UN vote moves the world closer to an Arms Trade Treaty that could include respect for human rights at its heart," said Brian Wood from Amnesty International. "That is the only way such a treaty can really help stop the widespread carnage and abuse from armed violence. But there are still sceptics and opponents."

The Control Arms campaign, made up of Amnesty International, the International Action Network on Small Arms and Oxfam International, welcomed the vote but called for more urgency from states in moving the process forward to ensure a strong Treaty with international human rights law, international humanitarian law and sustainable development at its heart.

The increasingly global consensus in favour of the treaty is likely to be reflected again at the General Assembly in December. The large “yes” vote was particularly strong in Africa, South and Central America and Europe indicating demand for arms control both from countries severely affected by armed violence and from major exporters.

Twelve states in the Middle East abstained. Only the US and Zimbabwe governments voted against the ATT resolution, which Brian Wood said was them "turning their backs on the overwhelming majority in an unprincipled stand against a Treaty that would save so many lives and livelihoods."

Every day, over 1000 people are killed directly with firearms and many thousands more die indirectly as a consequence of armed violence or are driven from their homes, forced off their land, raped, tortured or maimed. Since the UN process started in December 2006, approximately 700,000 people have been killed directly with firearms, illustrating the urgent need for a treaty.

Amnesty International invited two senior military officers to brief the UN in New York – Rt Brig Gen Mujahid Alam from Pakistan who has served the UN in the DRC and Kosovo, and Lt Colonel John Ochai of Nigeria, who was chief of Operations in the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan.

Rt Brig Alam told UN officials that: “From the study of DRC, it is proven that violations of arms embargo are frequent and ongoing. The complicity of governments in the region is the most critical aspect in the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

"UN arms embargoes are sometimes needed but unless we have an effective Arms Trade Treaty and establish common standards, the embargoes will neither be respected nor effectively enforced.”

The new UN decision is that the principles of the UN Charter and other state obligations must be considered as central to any Treaty. The UN will set up a series of up to six meetings of all states – called an Open Ended Working Group - to discuss the potential scope and principles of an Arms Trade Treaty.

Chuckie Taylor convicted of torture

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:43:49 +0000

Chuckie Taylor, son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, was found guilty of torture and related crimes by a US court on Thursday 30 October.

Taylor could face between 20 years to life imprisonment for the crimes he committed in Liberia, while serving as the head of the former Liberian President's Anti Terrorist Unit (ATU). These include the use of electric shocks on the genitals, burning victims with cigarettes and hot irons and melting plastic and rubbing salt into wounds.

According to media reports, sentencing is scheduled for 9 January 2009. The charges Taylor was convicted on cover acts of torture between 1999 and 2003.

This is the first conviction under the US Torture Victim Protection Act since that law was enacted in 1994. Chuckie Taylor is also the first person to be tried and convicted for crimes under international law committed during Liberia's decade-long conflict, which ended in 2003.

The trial of Chuckie Taylor (also known as Roy Belfast, Jr, Charles Taylor II and Charles MacArthur Emmanuel) started on 28 September 2008 in Miami, where he was originally arrested for passport fraud, before the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The federal anti-torture statute authorizes US Federal courts to exercise universal jurisdiction over persons found in the US who are suspected of torture committed anywhere in the world. The statute applies to US citizens and to those present in the United States, regardless of nationality and regardless where the crimes occurred.

Chuckie's trial took place at the same time that his father, Charles Taylor, was on trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague. The former president faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity he is alleged to have committed in Sierra Leone.

Liberia was embroiled in conflict characterized by war crimes and crimes against humanity between 1989 and 2003. In 2006 a new government came to power. To date, however, no one in Liberia has been investigated and prosecuted for torture or any other crime under international law.

In addition, the Liberian government has failed to enact the necessary legislation defining torture as a crime under national law consistently with the definition in the Convention against Torture. Amnesty International believes that just as prosecutors in the USA have now started to fulfil their responsibilities under the Convention against Torture to investigate and prosecute those alleged to have committed crimes against Liberians, the Liberian government, should without delay, enact the necessary legislation and implement it.

Another stay of execution for Troy Davis

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:32:36 +0000

Troy Davis was granted a provisional stay of execution on Friday, just three days before he was scheduled to be put to death. He has been on death row for 17 years for a crime he maintains he did not commit.

Troy Davis had exhausted his ordinary appeals against his conviction and death sentence, and the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied clemency. On 22 October, his lawyers applied to the 11th Circuit Court for an emergency stay of execution and for permission to file a second habeas corpus petition, maintaining that his execution would be unconstitutional.

In its decision issued on Friday, the three-judge panel concluded that Troy Davis had met the burden for a provisional stay of execution. The court then ordered the parties to address the question of whether Troy Davis can satisfy "the stringent requirements" under federal law to get back into court for further appeals on his innocence claim.

Davis’s lawyers have to file their written arguments within 15 days of the 11th Circuit’s order. After receiving this brief, the government has 10 days to file its response. If the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decides that Troy Davis has not met his burden under the federal statute to be able to pursue further appeals, the State of Georgia could again move to set another execution date.

More than 300,000 people in the USA and around the world have appealed for executive clemency for Troy Davis. Among them are former US President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pope Benedict XVI; the European Union, the European Parliament, and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.