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Asian Human Rights Commission issues Human Rights Report for 2008
by Asian Human Rights Commission
 
On December 17, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) released its annual Human Rights Report for 2008. In the report, AHRC addresses human rights situations in Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. In addition, AHRC asserts that there were serious human rights abuses and threats to human security in all of these countries. Human rights violations in 2008 included torture, illegal detentions, forced disappearances, abductions, and attacks on human rights defenders.
 
* Visit the link below to access the report.


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Closing Guantánamo Bay will end ‘dark chapter’ for US, stress UN experts
by AFP / UN News
USA
 
Jan 23, 2009
 
International human rights groups have welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama"s executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, saying the move marks a new era of revitalized U.S. respect for human rights.
 
US President Barack Obama"s executive order to end the use of torture sets a new course for US counterterrorism policy," said international monitor Human Rights Watch. "President Obama"s order rejecting such practices," including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and prolonged exposure to cold, "is a major step toward restoring America"s moral authority around the world," said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch.
 
The executive order, issued within the first two days of Obama"s presidency, states that the detention facility "shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order," reports Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog that also applauded the decision.
 
Elisa Massimino, Executive Director of Human Rights First said, " If there was any doubt that a new day is dawning in America, it has been washed away by the events of the past 24 hours. I am speaking about the three executive orders that President Obama signed yesterday. They represent a significant victory - a victory for which Human Rights First has fought relentlessly over the past seven years.
 
Standing next to the president as he signed these orders were 16 members of Human Rights First"s coalition of retired military leaders. Over the past several years, Human Rights First has brought together more than 50 generals and admirals to speak out against disastrous policies of torture, ill treatment, and indefinite detention. The president"s inclusion of these men yesterday honors them for the moral clarity and perseverance they have brought to this fight".
 
Jan. 2009
 
UN Special Rapporteur on Torure says law means former president Bush, Rumsfeld could be tried for torture. (AFP)
 
The UN"s special torture rapporteur called on the US to pursue former president George W Bush and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld for torture and bad treatment of Guantanamo prisoners.
 
"Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation" to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said, in remarks to be broadcast on Germany"s ZDF television on Tuesday evening.
 
He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required "all means, particularly penal law" to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.
 
"We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld," against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nowak said.
 
"But obviously the highest authorities in the United States were aware of this," added Nowak, who authored a UN investigation report on the Guantanamo prison.
 
Bush stepped down from power on Tuesday, with Barack Obama becoming the 44th president of the United States. Asked about chances to bring legal action against Bush and Rumsfeld, Nowak said: "In principle yes. I think the evidence is on the table."
 
At issue, however, is whether "American law will recognise these forms of torture." A bipartisan Senate report released last month found Rumsfeld and other top administration officials responsible for abuse of Guantanamo detainees in US custody.
 
It said Rumsfeld authorised harsh interrogation techniques on December 2, 2002, at the Guantanamo prison, although he ruled them out a month later. The coercive measures were based on a document signed by Bush in February, 2002.
 
French, German and US rights groups have previously said they wanted to bring legal action against Rumsfeld.
 
22 December 2008
 
Closing Guantánamo Bay will end ‘dark chapter’ for US, stress UN experts.
 
A group of independent United Nations human rights experts have welcomed United States President-elect Barack Obama’s announced decision close the Guantánamo Bay detention centre, stressing it will end “a dark chapter in the country’s history.”
 
In a statement issued in Geneva today, four UN human rights experts stated that “the regime applied at Guantánamo Bay neither allowed the guilty to be condemned nor secured that the innocent be released,” adding that it also opened the door for serious human rights violations.
 
Following his election in November, Mr. Obama publicly stated his commitment to lead his administration’s efforts to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp and to strengthen the fight against torture. Both of which are part, he said, of his efforts “to regain America’s moral stature in the world.”
 
The experts strongly support his commitment which they said, in addition to restoring the moral stature of the US in the world, “will allow a dark chapter in the country’s history to be closed and to advance in the protection of human rights.”
 
They added that “moving forward with closing Guantánamo is a strong symbol that will help to repair the image of the country after damage by what was widely perceived as attempts at legitimising the practice of torture under certain circumstances.”
 
In addition to being illegal, detention there was “ineffective in criminal procedure terms,” said the experts, adding that similar severe abuses also occur at places of secret detention. “Thus, with the same emphasis, the experts urge that all secret detention places be closed and that persons detained therein be given due process.”
 
The experts also stressed that detainees facing criminal charges must be provided fair trials before courts that afford all essential judicial guarantees. “They emphatically reject any proposals that Guantánamo detainees could through new legislation be subjected to administrative detention, as this would only prolong their arbitrary detention,” the statement said.
 
Further, they called on third countries to facilitate the closure through their full cooperation in resettling those Guantánamo detainees that cannot be sent back to their countries of origin and, in this regard, welcomed the recent announcement of Portugal to accept detainees and called on other States to follow.
 
Among those adding his name to today’s statement is the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, Martin Scheinin, who warned a couple of months ago that the US Government’s system of military commissions planned for suspects detained at Guantánamo is not likely to reach international standards on the right to a fair trial.
 
He added that a visit to Guantánamo Bay in December 2007 confirmed his misgivings concerning the operation of the military commissions.
 
The US Supreme Court has in a series of cases pronounced itself on the rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. In its most recent decision, the Court found the Military Commissions Act unconstitutional and granted the detainees access to the federal courts’ jurisdiction, including the right to habeas corpus.
 
Today’s statement is also signed by the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Leandro Despouy; the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak; and the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Anand Grover.


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