Counter terror with justice

Amnesty International UK held a mass demonstration in Downing Street, calling on the UK Government not to turn a blind eye to torture

Counter terror: Stop torture, end impunity

26 June is International Day in Support of Vicitms of Torture. Call on governments to stop torture and end impunity in the context of counter terrorism.

Government responses to the threat of terrorist attacks have led to a weakening of the framework of international human rights. States are resorting to practices which have long been prohibited by international law, and have sought to justify them in the name of national security.

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URGENT ACTION: End incommunicado detention in Spain

26 June 2009

Spanish law allows terrorism suspects to be held incommunicado for upto 13 days. Incommunicado detainees have no effective access to alawyer or to a doctor of their choice. Their family is not informedthat they have been detained.

URGENT ACTION: Polish investigation into CIA crimes: questions over secrecy remain

26 June 2009

Amnesty International called for the investigation into the long standing allegations initiated by the Polish National Prosecutor’s Office in 2008 to be transparent and thorough, in contrast to the previous investigation by the secret services committee of the Polish parliament conducted in 2005 and 2006.

URGENT ACTION: Accountability for US counter-terrorism human rights violations

26 June 2009

In the name of countering terrorism, the USA has violated the rights ofindividuals in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo and elsewhere. The humanrights violations committed by and on behalf of the USA since 11September 2001 are many and varied. This has been confirmed bydocuments, photographs, declassified legal opinion and official statements.

URGENT ACTION: Saudi Arabia: Dire human rights record exacerbated by counter-terrorism measures

26 June 2009

The Saudi Arabian authorities have launched a sustained assault on human rights in the name of security and fighting terrorism. Thousands of people have been arrested and detained in virtual secrecy; others have been killed in uncertain circumstances in what the authorities say were clashes with the security forces. Hundreds face secret and summary trials and possible execution.

Control tower of the airport in Szymany, Poland, where a Boeing 737 used by the CIA landed in 2003, allegedly bringing detainees

CIA crimes and Polish complicity?: transparency and accountability needed

3 April 2009

Sign the petition for a full and transparent investigation into crimes alleged in context of secret CIA detention

Iraqi prisoner clutches bars of cell at Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq

Detainees held by USA at risk if transferred to Iraqi custody

5 January 2009

The agreement signed between the US President and the Prime Minister of Iraq on 14 December 2008 opens the way for the transfer of thousands of detainees from US to Iraqi custody.

Issues

About 250 people are currently held at Guantánamo.

End illegal detentions

Guantánamo has come to symbolise the US government’s disregard for international law in its treatment of detainees in its “war on terror”.

A detainee in Camp 4 at Guantánamo, October 2007

Military Commissions: A travesty of Justice

The rules and procedures governing military commission trials at Guantánamo are at odds with international law. The system is deeply flawed and should be abandoned.

Still from the video ‘Waiting for the Guards’ simulating torture in secret detention

No justification for torture

Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, like slavery and genocide, are always wrong.

News

Tunisia: end denial, address human rights abuses in the name of security

26 June 2009

President Obama’s decision to close the US detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by next January leads Amnesty International to fear that several Tunisians detained there could be forcibly returned to Tunisia where they would be at risk of further, serious human rights violations, including detention without trial and torture.

Law Lords bench, House of Lords, Westminster, London

UK Law Lords rule control orders based on secret information violate right to fair trial

10 June 2009

The highest court in the United Kingdom has ruled that people have the right to know the information used against them to impose control orders, so that they can effectively challenge those orders.

President Obama visits Egypt

4 June 2009

US President Barack Obama met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Thursday as he continued his trip to the Middle East.

Barack Obama speaking in Mexico City on Friday, 17 April

President Obama urged to tackle human rights violations in Saudi Arabia

3 June 2009

US President Barack Obama begins his trip to the Middle East with a visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

President Obama defends Guantánamo closure, but endorses indefinite preventive detention

22 May 2009

US President Barack Obama has restated his commitment to closing the Guantánamo detention facility and to ending the use of the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved under the previous US administration.

Return of Guantánamo military commissions would not serve justice

15 May 2009

President Barack Obama would be "short-changing justice" if he revives the military commissions to try Guantánamo detainees, Amnesty International has said.

President Barack Obama after signing executive order closing Guantanánamo, 22 Januray 2009.

Mixed messages from President Obama after 100 days

29 April 2009

100 days after taking office, President Obama's record in terms of US counter terrorism policies has been assessed in a new Amnesty International report.

Further US torture revelations highlight need for independent commission of inquiry

23 April 2009

Condoleezza Rice approved the use of “water-boarding” in 2002 according to information released on Wednesday by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Impunity for CIA torture is incompatible with USA's international obligations

17 April 2009

Four previously secret memorandums released by the new US administration give an insight into how its predecessor lost its legal and moral compass in turning to torture and other ill-treatment in the name of counter-terrorism.

Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen, US President Obama and US Secretary of State Clinton, in the Oval Office, 17 March 2009

Ireland's offer to accept Guantánamo detainees must be matched

20 March 2009

Amnesty International has called on other European governments to follow Ireland's lead in offering to accept a small number of Guantánamo detainees who the USA will release.