End rendition and secret detention: Europe’s duty

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:38:49 +0000

European states have been implicated in the US-led rendition and secret detention programme, in which people have been unlawfully detained and transferred from one country to another outside of any judicial process.

Some have been transferred from US custody to countries where torture and other ill-treatment is known to accompany interrogation; others have been transferred into US custody and subsequently held in detention centres in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

A number of individuals have been subjected to enforced disappearance, including in secret CIA detention, and the whereabouts of some three dozen people remain unknown. Every one of the victims of rendition interviewed by Amnesty International has said they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated in custody.

Investigations by the Council of Europe and the European Parliament have recommended that Member States take measures to prevent such human rights violations occurring in the future and to ensure redress, including reparation, to the victims.

These recommendations have not been implemented to date.

Say no to illegal US detentions

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:10:50 +0000

Guantánamo symbolises the US government’s disregard for international law in its counter-terrorism efforts. It is just one part of a wider system of indefinite and secret detentions, enforced disappearance, renditions and torture and other ill-treatment.

Amnesty International’s petition to end US illegal detentions is based on a framework that outlines steps that the US authorities must take to end this outrage.

Please visit the site tearitdown.org and sign the pledge. By doing so, you will add your name to endorse the framework and show your commitment to closing Guantánamo as a first step to ending US illegal detention.

Call to Parliamentarians

Parliamentary representatives from many countries around the world have signed a declaration calling to end illegal detention by the US government carried out in the name of counter-terrorism.

To add your name to Amnesty International’s framework as a parliamentarian, please e-mail counter-terror-with-justice@amnesty.org, telling us your name and title, country and region/constituency.

If you are not a parliamentarian, you can still urge your elected representatives to sign this petition. Use your own words or download our model letter.

Contact your nearest Amnesty International office for more information about this action.

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End rendition and secret detention: Europe’s duty

Say no to illegal US detentions

Call to Parliamentarians