FIDH and CCR issued the following statement :
FIDH and CCR have always condemned any form of terrorism and reiterates that such acts are international crimes and that there is an absolute necessity to punish the perpetrators. The fight against terrorism is necessary to protect human life but it must be carried out in the respect of human rights.
The FIDH and CCR recall that the United States, three years after the first detentions still holds, in deplorable conditions, about 550 people as « enemy combatants » at the Guantanamo naval base. Despite the Supreme Court ruling in favor of guaranteeing due process to detainees in Guantanamo (Rasul v. Bush), the Bush Administration fails to comply with the Court’s ruling and continues to maintain in detention the prisoners without informing them of their charges and delaying legal proceedings and consistently failing to apply the Geneva Conventions to the treatment of prisoners of war. Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Convention clearly sets out the right to a fair trial including the presumption of innocence and the right not to be subjected to torture and degrading, inhuman or cruel treatment in any time in any place. The FIDH and CCR are also deeply concerned with the appointment of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of United States. As overwhelming evidence exists of Mr Gonzales efforts to evade or circumvent domestic and international laws dealing with basic human rights prescriptions and torture. Mr. Gonzales’ written considerations of the Geneva Conventions as « obsolete » and « quaint » are a direct attack to these universally recognized international instruments. Mr. Gonzales also considered a relaxed definition of torture that limited it to only those actions that lead to organ failure, death or permanent psychological damage. FIDH and CCR strongly believes that the person entrusted to be the highest law enforcement officer in any country must commit himself to the highest respect for the rule of law and not the blatant disdain shown by Mr. Gonzales.
The FIDH joins CCR’s call on President Bush to divulge the ICRC report on Guatanamo detainees and to appoint a Special Prosecutor before national courts to investigate cases of torture and on the conditions in Guantanamo.
The FIDH and CCR consider that the US investigation of the Abu Ghraib cases of torture was in fact designed to cover up the role of high-ranking officials. As a consequence the FIDH and CCR also deeply regret the German court’s refusal to hear war crime cases against ten high-ranking U.S. Officials including Donald Rumsfeld, in the abuse of detainees in Irak.
The FIDH and CCR recall that all 25 members of the European Union but the Czech Republic are parties to the Rome Statutes for the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Council of the European Union common position, on June 16 2003, stated that it is of the highest importance that the integrity of the Rome Statutes be preserved.
Therefore FIDH and CCR urge the European Union to pressure the Bush administration to urgently reconsider its opposition to the ICC and to oppose the ratification of bilateral impunity agreements with third States as being as being a way to guarantee the impunity of US nationals. We call the European Union Member States to denounce unanimously the last US offensive against the ICC, known as the Nethercutt amendment which aims at cutting funding from the Economic Support Funds to all States that have not ratified impunity agreements.
The FIDH and CCR urge the European Union to include in its discussion with president Bush the following issues: the US government’s policies against the ICC, the necessary respect of humanitarian law and fondamental human rights including due process, the rule of law and the prohibition against torture.