On this occasion the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR)publish a letter they jointly addressed to the EU officials, urging them to notify to the US authorities their disapproval of the serious human rights violations committed by the American government in the context of the "War on terror" and the fight against illegal migration.
"These concerns ought to be resolved urgently in order to avoid that illegitimate, unfair, and unlawful practices become established precedents," read the note submitted last week.
The Bush administration’s so-called "War on Terror" has turned into a war on human and civil rights, causing a number of serious setbacks and direct violations for which higher officials have yet to be held accountable. FIDH and CCR ask the European Union to pressure the U.S. delegation to commit to launching serious, independent investigations into and prosecutions of abuse, torture, and other cruel treatment of detainees. These investigations should look up the chain of command and uphold the principle that there is no immunity for serious human rights violations.
FIDH and CCR also stress the untenable situation at Guantánamo in which some detainees begin to be tried under military commissions – patently unfair proceedings dismantling the rule of law and violating U.S. international obligations for fair trials. In addition, some fifty Guantánamo detainees, many of whom have even been "cleared for release" by the U.S. government, continue to languish in Guantánamo with nowhere to go. Torture or abuse is imminent in their home countries if returned, and the U.S. has refused to provide them safe haven. In their note, FIDH and CCR recalled that "European Union member States are all bound with the obligation to help realize the principle of non-refoulement that derives from the 1951 Refugee Convention," and called upon EU member states to "offer humanitarian protection to some of Guantánamo’s refugees in EU countries with urgency."
The unfair situation of former Guantanamo detainees of Afghan nationality is yet another issue of concern. After being returned to Afghanistan, they are still denied justice and arbitrarily detained, under close U.S. monitoring, but far from any media or public scrutiny. The European Union must demand that, as the United States "empties" Guantánamo and other widely-criticized prisons such as Bagram, it does so responsibly.
FIDH and CCR further deplore the blatant illegality of CIA’s secret detention program. Disappeared, sometimes for years, barred from communication with anyone in the outside world, and subjected to harsh interrogations involving physical and psychological abuse, some detained in "black sites" are released, without any sort of apology or compensation, because they were simply not the people being sought. Others are still, to this day, held as "ghost detainees." FIDH and CCR urge the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, and the French Presidency to demand that the United States terminates its secret detention program, and request that European countries shed light on their involvement with the CIA program.
Finally, FIDH and CCR deeply deplore the violations of the rights of undocumented migrants on their way to the United States. In the last decade, the U.S. has implemented a so-called "deterrence policy" against illegal entry at the U.S. border that has involved strong militarization and the construction of a wall at the border with Mexico. This expensive policy has turned out to be mostly costly in human terms, as it forces thousands of migrants each year to cross the border by foot through the most inhospitable and dangerous deserts of the South, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of men, women, and children each year.
At the same time, the "deterrence policy" has proved to be inefficient. The presence of about 12 millions of officially "unauthorized" immigrant workers in the United States is one of the most striking illustrations of the incoherence and hypocrisy of policies, in addition to the repeated raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the U.S. While these policies and practices intend to prohibit and repress "illegal" immigration without comprehensive alternatives such as legalization, they, in reality, allow American companies to exploit hard-working men and women.
FIDH and CCR believe that it is paramount that the European Union make it clear that a deep reform of U.S. immigration law, respectful of international human rights law, is necessary. The challenge will be to take the issue of migration out of the prism of fear and frame it in the area of development, cooperation, and respect for human rights.