Category: stop torture

Group events


We have several events in the next couple of weeks and anyone free to help will always be welcome.

  • Today! Saturday 8 November at the Guildhall.  We shall be holding an event in aid of our #NorthKorea campaign and we will be doing a moving display at 10 o’clock and our first YouTube posting if we can manage it.  If you are free at that time that would be really useful – we need people to hold some cards.
  • Thursday 13 November at 7 pm (note earlier time).  Normal monthly meeting followed by a talk by Kenny Latunda Dada who has been to Salisbury on two previous occasions and Bona Shin who is a South Korean activist.  They will be talking about #NorthKorea.
  • Saturday 15 November at the Library which will be a card signing as part of the Stop Torture campaign, #stoptorture.  If you can help or come along and sign that would be appreciated.
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Court of Appeal victory #stoptorture


October 2014

stop_torture

Update: See this Human Rights Watch blog: http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/31/dispatches-rare-victory-justice

A victory was achieved today in the long running battle by Abdul-Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar to get justice and redress for being tortured in Libya.

Belhaj was a Libyan politician who was allegedly abducted and secretly flown to Libya where he was tortured by General Gaddafi’s security forces.  He has brought the case against the former foreign secretary, Jack Straw and Sir Mark Allen, the former head of counter terrorism at MI6.  After the collapse of the Gaddafi regime, papers were discovered in Libya which implicated the British security services in the torture of Belhaj and his wife.

In December 2013, the High Court struck out the civil lawsuit brought by the claimants, holding that since the claim called into question activities of a foreign state on its own territory the act of state doctrine precluded the court from hearing the case.  The Court rejected the UK Government’s argument that state immunity (a principle of international law by which a state is protected from being sued in the courts of other states) operated as a bar to the claim.

Judge Mr Justice Simon found “with hesitation” that the case could not go ahead and expressed his concern that “what appears to be a potentially well-founded claim that the UK authorities were directly implicated in the extraordinary rendition of the claimants, will not be determined in any domestic court; and that Parliamentary oversight and criminal investigations are not adequate substitutes for access to, and a decision by, the Court.”

In February 2014, the claimants were given permission to appeal the ruling on the act of state doctrine and the UK Government cross-appealed contesting that, in addition to the act of state doctrine, state immunity also precluded the claims from being heard.

On Monday 30 June, the NGOs Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, JUSTICE and REDRESS filed written interventions jointly in this case, which may set an important precedent for future claims brought by torture victims.

In the Court of Appeal’s decision it noted, among other things, the changed nature of public international law which has expanded to include the regulation of human rights …  It went on to observe that ‘unless the English Courts are able to exercise jurisdiction in this case, these very grave allegations against the executive will never be subjected to judicial investigation.’ 

Andrea Coomber of Justice said that the Government’s case would fundamentally undercut the international rule of law and undermine the global commitment to remedies for victims of human rights violations.

Part of the Government’s case was a fear of embarrassing the United States who had colluded with MI6 in the alleged abduction.

It is frequently stated that the British Government does not carry out torture and we have signed the relevant treaties to that effect.  Rendering people to countries to, in effect, subcontract this evil process is unacceptable.

The government is considering whether to appeal.

Sources

Brick Court Chambers, http://www.brickcourt.co.uk

The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk

Redress (see link at bottom of this blog)

Reprieve (ditto)

Amnesty International (ditto)

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Group minutes


These are the minutes of the October group meeting – thanks to Karen.

October minutes

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#Nigeria #stoptorture


Card signing
Card signing

We held a stall in the Library tunnel on Saturday 11 October in aid of the #stoptorture campaign and in particular, to highlight the case of

Moses Akatugba in .  He was arrested for allegedly stealing mobile phones, shot in the hand and tortured by the Nigerian Army.  He has been in prison now for eight years and is on death row awaiting execution.  Torture is routine in Nigeria and it is reported that police stations even have a ‘torture officer’.

We collected 189 signatures in three hours which is a good haul for a difficult subject which has received next to no publicity.  We shall be sending the cards in two batches to the Governor of Delta state in Nigeria where Moses is being held.  We have sent a report of the signing to the Nigerian Embassy in London (see under Update below).

If you would like to know more about this case then you can find it here: Nigeria fact sheet

We are grateful to all those who stopped to sign a card.  The great majority of passers-by did not to sign it has to be noted for

Moses Akatugba
Moses Akatugba

reasons that are never clear or revealed.  155 countries around the world have signed the UN protocol against the use of torture but according to Amnesty International figures, it is still practised in 141 of them. In other words, they sign treaties to end it but continue to use it.

Thanks to all the Salisbury Group’s team for taking part and their help in making this a success: Michael; Jonathan; Andrew; Lesley; Peter; Fiona; Eddie; Cynthia; Tony and Karen.

UPDATE 13 October  Nigerian Embassy letter

Some of the signed cards
Some of the signed cards

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#stoptorture Bahrain


stop_tortureAn interesting decision was made by the courts this week that Prince Nassser bin Hammed Al-Khalifa (pictured) is liable for prosecution for his alleged role in the torture of FF a torture survivor from the kingdom.  Up to now the prince has claimed immunity.  The case is important because several of the gulf states regularly use torture yet prosecutions never happen because of claimed immunity.

This is an embarrassment to the UK government as it has welcomed members of the ruling family toprince nasser bin hasam Downing St and is keen to promote greater ties with the kingdom.  Indeed the New Statesman remarked that ‘the more desperate the situation in Bahrain becomes, the closer Britain ties itself to the ruling family.’

Behind it all is an arms deal of £1bn for the sale of Tornado jets.

The full story is on the Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (sic)

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#stoptorture


At a conference held by Amnesty in London, one of the speakers was Prof. Malcolm Evans of Bristol University.  He spoke on the subject of and its use around the world with the particular perspective of the UN Convention Against Torture [full title: Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatments or Punishment, SPT].

One of the problems with the issue of torture and its use is that many countries have signed up to abolish its use but nevertheless continue to practise it.  Another speaker pointed out that 155 countries have signed the protocol but as far as is known there are credible reports of its use in 141 countries around the world.  It’s easy when reading statistics sometimes for one’s eyes to glide over such figures.  But just ponder that figure -141 countries.

SPT gives the right of the UN to go to any country, which has signed the optional protocol, without prior warning.  It is the only UN body able to do this.  They are not there to investigate individual instances but to ‘get ahead’ of violations and to stop something from happening rather than holding individuals to account.

Their purpose is to get preventative safeguards established which include issues of legality, and knowing who is in detention.  They work alongside authorities and discussions are held, sometimes with people one would rather not have discussions with.

He made the point that it wasn’t just dictatorial regimes who engaged in this activity but that it was more a matter of how it has always been done.  There was a kind of routineness to it.  It was as much to do with corruption as anything else.  In trying to advance change, you have to work with what is practical to achieve and to establish relationships to achieve momentum.

He also raised the intriguing point that it was all very well writing to presidents and the like asking them to stop this practice, but since most of them had signed up not to do it anyway, how effective is that as a campaign method?

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Stop Torture campaign


The local group will be manning a stand on 15 November to highlight the #stoptorture campaign which was launched by Amnesty in May this year.  The practice is alive and well throughout the world and Amnesty has recently ramped up its campaigning to stamp out the practice with the Stop Torture campaign.

'Waiting for the guards'
‘Waiting for the guards’

Ahead of its launch, Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General said governments around the world are “two-faced on torture” – prohibiting it in law, but facilitating it in practice”.

He added: “Torture is not just alive and well – it is flourishing in many parts of the world.  As more governments seek to justify torture in the name of national security, the steady progress made in this field over the last thirty years is being eroded.”

Stop torture will be a key part of the Amnesty display as part of the Magna Carta events at the Cathedral next year.

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