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Debate
Ban on torture: Europe’s responsibility
EU consensus: overdue but incomplete
Kenya: the president’s defeat
Climate protection: Kyoto progress
01/2006 |
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[ Comment ]
Ban on torture: Europe’s responsibility
States, which abide to the rule of law, must rule out torture, including torture by third parties. Nonetheless, for the current US administration, this no longer goes without saying. In contrast, Europe claims to uphold human rights in the war on terror. However, the recent affair concerning secret CIA flights of detainees has damaged European governments’ credibility.
[ By Wolfgang S. Heinz ]
The US administration’s stand on inhumane treatment remains ambiguous, even after President George W. Bush withdrew his threat to veto legislation which was passed by Congress in an attempt to give clear guidelines for interrogating terror suspects. While this amendment categorically rules out inhumane, degrading treatment, the White House made sure that anyone accused of breaking these rules would enjoy legal protection by the US administration. And when Foreign Secretary Condoleezza Rice stated on her trip to Europe in December that the administration does not tolerate torture, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez pointed out in a TV interview at home that it is up to the president to defines what exactly amounts to torture.
So far, human rights groups and the media were the main actors to reveal details on the length the US administration is willing to go to in hunting down and interrogating terrorist suspects. In August 2004, long before the current discussion about CIA flights, a report by the US-based organisation Human Rights First listed more than 30 secret locations where the US military and the CIA were keeping detainees. In November 2005, the Washington Post ran a story on secret detention centres of the US secret service in eight countries, including Jordan, Thailand and some countries in Eastern Europe. Next, Human Rights Watch stated there was reason to believe that detainees had been flown to Poland and Romania. The two countries denied any such claims. In December, an investigation conducted on behalf of the Council of Europe nonetheless found reason to believe that the CIA was reponsible for secret transfers in Europe.
Since the US administration declared its war on terror after the attacks on 11. September 2001, Europe has repeatedly distanced itself from certain aspects of the US strategy and called on Bush to uphold human rights standards. Some EU members have done so more vehemently than others. When the secret CIA flights were revealed, the EU asked the White House for clarification. But Washington was not about to let the Europeans off the hook that easily. Before she visited Europe in December, Foreign Secretary Rice had information spread on European governments being better informed than they would have their citizens believe.
The US is the main culprit in the damage done to human rights standards in the war on terror. Nonetheless, it has become clear that Europe has also been derelict of its duties. Either European governments knew of the CIA flights and tacitly tolerated them, in which case they committed a serious breach of the rule of law, including violations of the international ban on torture, or Europe did not know anything at the time and only learned about it afterwards, which is what the German government is claiming in the case of Khaled el-Masri, the German detainee taken to Afghanistan. In that case, cooperation of secret services would have sorely failed.
All summed up, it seems unrealistic to believe that Europeans did not know anything. German Home Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has already admitted that German officials took part in interrogations of a German-Syrian taken to Syria. It is also well-known that the CIA and Germany’s secret service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, work closely together and stay in touch on terror issues.
It is encouraging to see European governments and parliaments emphasise the ban on torture as they did in the past few weeks. But they will need to practice what they preach, rather than tacitly sit by and watch human rights being violated by others in the war on terror or, even worse, secretly take part in such action. Europe must not leave its standards in doubt. The rule of law does not allow any scope for torturing – not even when done by third parties.
Dr. Wolfgang S. Heinz
is a researcher at the German Institute for Human Rights and a lecturer in political science at the Free University of Berlin.
heinz@institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de
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