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June 26 U.N. Support Victims Day The Tragedy of U.S. TORTURE
June 26 was chosen as the day to support victims of torture for two reasons. 1) It is the anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter (1945); on that occasion President Harry Truman warned forthrightly that "unless we can attain human rights for all men and women everywhere. we cannot have permanent peace and security in the world." 2) June 26 is also the anniversary of the day when the UN Convention Against Torture went into force (1987), endorsed by 105 nations. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) had already proclaimed the simple ideal: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." At that time the U.S. served as a beacon leading the world toward a higher ethic after the horrors of the Nazi death camps. Eleanor Roosevelt proudly chaired the Commission that produced the historic document that opened a new era in the search to lift humanity to a higher level. If anyone had predicted, even twenty years ago, that the U.S. in 2006 would be singled out internationally as guilty of the grossest violations in abusing and torturing unconvicted prison detainees, he would have been laughed at. If he went further and forecast that a U.S. president in 2006 would claim he had the power to execute laws as he interprets them, ignoring Congressional intent, and that his attorney general would assure him that torture is a perfectly legal weapon in his anti-terrorist toolbox, the seer would have been fitted with a strait-jacket and hauled away. But routine torture and previously unimaginable conduct have become a U.S. trademark as Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and other "off-shore" prisons have been spread all over world media, and have disgusted many who formerly admired America. Despite protests against practices so alien to the American self-image, those who are "soft on torture" seem to have little realization that they are playing with fire. As a party to the UN Convention Against Torture, the US is required to present reports to the UN Committee every four years, describing its compliance with the Convention. It submitted one last year and just got its report card on May 19 this year. The Committee expressed concern over "allegations that the US had established secret detention facilities" and it also recommended that Guantanamo be closed. Thereupon those who had prepared the report accused the UN Committee of not using the material they had submitted and of overstepping their authority. The whole tangled tale can be read about on USINFO.STATE.GOV. Many in the religious community have begun to find their tongues and break silence about the abominably unethical practice of torturing humans. Last January a conference on human rights and religious commitment, held on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary, focused specifically on "Theology, International Law, and Torture." Its goal was to launch a national religious campaign against torture. That effort has gained momentum and on June 13, 2006, twenty-seven religious leaders, including Nobel laureates Jimmy Carter and Elie Wiesel, and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, signed a statement calling upon the U.S. to "abolish torture now—without exceptions," and the statement was placed as an op-ed ad in the New York Times. Entitled "Torture is a Moral Issue," the statement has all the language made familiar by the UN instruments: Torture "violates the basic dignity of the human person and contradicts our nation's most cherished values." Despite swift assurances from the administration that "this government does not torture," there has been too much evidence to the contrary, and on its website, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture continues to urge Congress and the president to "remove all ambiguities." It is a message that is not going to be down-played as elections approach. Some wags have suggested that it might be time to do a variation on the earlier slogans of some Christians, and seriously ask: "WWJT—Who Would Jesus Torture?" |
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Carolina Civic Voice Summer 2006 Vol. 6, No 2 |
