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Monitoring protection mechanisms / Statements / United States / 2015 / June

United States: Press Release: UN Day for Victims of Torture: Government has still to end and repair torture policies - The Case of Mr. Mustafa al-Hawsawi at Guantanamo Bay

USA_Press Release_June 26_2015
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Geneva, Washington, 26 June 2015 - On the occasion of the UN Day for Victims of Torture the leading global civil society coalition against torture calls for a full end to the torture policies with full accountability.

 

Until today the worlds leading democracy with a proud legal system has been unwilling or unable to redress its torture policies following 9-11. This continues to set a dangerous crack in the international framework against torture. Accounting is not the same as accountability.

 

‘Far from being an issue of the ‘past’ the torture policies continue to be protected by a deliberate policy of laws and regulations designed to ensure that those subjected to this treatment are prevented from speaking out, seeking real remedies and accessing fundamental rehabilitation services’.

 

The case of Mustafa al-Hawsawi:

 

Mustafa al-Hawsawi is a detainee at Guantanamo. Following his forced disappearance by the CIA in 2003, he was subjected to various forms of torture over lengthy periods.  The U.S. Government hid his torture for 12 years. On 9 December 2014, the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its report on the CIA Torture Program[1] and revealed that Mr. al Hawsawi is a victim of some of the most brutal acts of torture imaginable, which he endured during his years in the CIA Torture Program. The torture included being sodomized during rectal exams conducted with “excessive force”[2] as a form of behavior control, and it resulted in a torn rectum, chronic hemorrhoids, and a rectal prolapse that requires him, despite excruciating pain, to reinsert exposed tissue back into his rectal cavity with his fingers when he defecates or strains.

 

Because the U. S. Government was intent on hiding his torture from the world, Mr. al-Hawsawi has been denied the basic right of rehabilitation under the Convention Against Torture[3], to which the United States is bound and by which it must abide. Mr. al-Hawsawi continues to suffer daily from the injuries inflicted upon him by the United States Government. As he continues under the total control, for more than 12 years now, of the same Government that tortured him, Mr. al-Hawsawi still has not received adequate medical treatment or rehabilitation while imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

 

‘Torture does not end at the moment when the torturer stops abusing the victim. Torture, instead, ends at the moment when the victim no longer endures its physical or psychological scars. Denying the right to an effective remedy and access to rehabilitation continues to violate the international prohibition of torture’, said the OMCT.      

 

On 26 June 2015, International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the global community should speak out against denial of remedies and rehabilitation. One of the most cruel, humiliating, and degrading acts of torture is actually an omission:  mutilating a victim’s mind and body and then stepping back to allow and to watch the victim’s agony unabated, for years. The U. S. Government’s continuous denial of rehabilitation to its victims is a denial of the rule of law. We ask that you call upon the U.S. Government to provide rehabilitation to Mr. al-Hawsawi, and all persons subjected to torture at its hands, by circulating this message at:

#RehabilitateHawsawiNow #Guantanamo #Torture

 

For more information on the case of Mr. Mustafa al-Hawsawi contact OMCT at omct@omct.org or his legal defense team directly via walter.ruiz@osd.mil.  

 

 

The OMCT wishes to thank the European Commission for their financial support to the OMCT global campaign on June 26 ‘nothing can justify torture under any circumstances’.




[1] Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program, 9 December 2014), available at: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/09/world/cia-torture-report-document.html?_r=0

[2] Ibid at page 100, FN 584.

[3] Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, GA res. 39/46, annex, 39 UN GAOR Supp. (No. 51) at 197, UN Doc. A/39/51 (1984); 1465 UNTS 85

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Date: June 26, 2015
Activity: Monitoring Protection Mechanisms
Type: Statements
Country: United States
Subjects: Torture and violence

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