Press Release: Global activists adopt new initiative to counter torture in times of terrorism
Tunis, Geneva, Brussels, February 7, 2019
Tunis, Geneva, Brussels: Following
a two-day meeting in Tunis convened by the World Organization Against
Torture (OMCT), leading anti-torture
activists from 23 countries discussed a concerted approach to challenge
the growing acceptance of torture in volatile security contexts.
”The question is not about addressing the threat
that terrorism poses to our societies, but about how we address it”,
said Mokhtar Trifi, OMCT Vice President. “The members and partners of
our SOS-Torture Network see on a daily basis
how the legitimate fight against violent extremism is subverted to
justify torture, despite the universal ban against it. We need to
remember that, while no one is above the law, no one is below the
threshold of the law either, whatever the crimes they stand accused of. Poking holes in the
international legal framework endangers us all. It is urgent to fight
this toxic narrative, even more so with the current turn toward populist
governance in many places, including in democratic
countries.”
The participants to the new Working Group
“Torture & Terrorism”, who met for the first time on 5-6 February,
live and work, for the most part, on the front lines of the “war against
terrorism” in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe
and Latin America. They are faced with growing public acceptance of
torture in their respective contexts. “This is despite what we know from
experience, that torture doesn’t make us safer”, said Sevan Doraisamy
from SUARAM, a Malaysian human rights organization.
“Quite the opposite, it brutalizes societies and only feeds a vicious
cycle of violence.”
Shockingly, members of anti-torture groups find
themselves increasingly targeted by both sides, added Khalid Ibrahim
from the Gulf Centre for Human Rights. ¨The biggest travesty is that
States abuse the fight against terrorism to target
human rights defenders, the very people we need to support the fight
against violent extremists. Each of us knows a colleague who was either
the victim of terrorism or of the security forces supposed to protect
us. How can anyone pretend that our countries
are safer when State responses to terrorist violence sweep human rights
defenders in their wake?”
Ms Fionnuala Ni Aolain, United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism
and one of the patrons of the Working Group, addressed the participants
via video link, highlighting the ¨crucial
contribution of civil society groups such as this one in helping
document the entrenched and systematic misuse of counter-terrorism
measures.”
In the next months, the Working Group will step up its actions along three main axes:
• collection of data from the field, building on the members’ collective experiences and expertise
• increased support for victims of torture and human rights defenders at risk
• innovative campaigns to challenge the growing public acceptance for torture in so-called “exceptional” cases.
For more information, please contact:
Camille Henry, Working group coordinator ch@omct.org +216 27
842 197
Iolanda Jaquemet, Communications advisor ij@omct.org +41 79 539
41 06