EU/US: European governments have been turning a blind eye to the US illegally transporting people to third countries where they face torture, according to the UN's special rapporteur on torture, Prof Manfred Nowak.
The Austrian professor of law, who has been working against torture since the 1970s, said it was imperative that European governments investigated allegations of the rendition of terrorist suspects, and the use of secret detention centres for their interrogation.
Prof Nowak was in Ireland yesterday to speak at a conference on "extraordinary renditions", organised jointly by Amnesty International and the Irish Centre for Human Rights. The term "extraordinary renditions" describes the practice whereby people suspected of involvement with terrorism are arrested by the CIA or local officials working with it and transported to third countries, where they may be tortured and where they do not enjoy the protection of the US's own prohibitions on torture.
This practice is illegal in a number of respects, Prof Nowak said. First, people are arrested and detained illegally. Second, they are sent to countries where they are in danger of torture, which contravenes various international conventions against refoulement - sending a person to a place where they may be tortured. Third, they are transported without any extradition hearing at which they might have an opportunity to challenge the allegations against them. Their treatment during the process of rendition may itself constitute torture, he said, as it often includes being shackled in a painful position and being deprived of sleep.
Prof Novak emphatically rejected the arguments made by the US and the UK that the new conditions existing after 9/11 justified the weakening of human rights protections.
"Terrorism is not a new phenomenon," he insisted. "Many EU governments, including the UK, have had to deal with terrorism for many years. One of the lead judgments in this area was that of the European Court of Human Rights against the UK on the treatment of detainees in Northern Ireland. It said this violated the European Convention on Human Rights, and the UK changed it. The treatment was not necessary to fight terrorism.
"The interrogation methods authorised by [US Defence Secretary] Rumsfeld are fairly similar to those found to violate European human rights law in the case of the UK. Many US senior military people felt extremely uncomfortable with it.
"It's also very counter-productive. It gives in to the terrorist threat. They want to destabilise functioning western-style democracies. That's why it's so important to fight terrorism within the framework of international law.
"It's also why we must look for the causes of terrorism and engage in dialogue. Talking of the 'war on terrorism' sends all the wrong signals. Terrorism is just another form of organised crime, and we need to work together against it within the law."
He is very optimistic that US policy can be changed. "The US is a state with a democratic government and a very long tradition of human rights. Public pressure from its allies and organisations like the UN, along with growing discomfort in the US, all has an impact," said Prof Novak.
"The fact that Abu Ghraib is going to be closed is as a result of pressure. I was agreeably surprised that President Bush said he was going to close Guantánamo Bay. I hope that at the June summit between the EU and President Bush we will have a final solution to Guantánamo Bay, including sharing the burden of what to do with the detainees."