Yesterday, the Council of Europe condemned the United States for torturing terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Council of Europe is made up of three main institutions:
European Court of Human Rights
Commissioner for Human Rights
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe
You can learn about their history, mission, and structure here.
• defend human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law,
• develop continent-wide agreements to standardise member countries’ social and legal practices,
• promote awareness of a European identity based on shared values and cutting across different cultures.
Since 1989, its main job has become:
• acting as a political anchor and human rights watchdog for Europe’s post-communist democracies,
• assisting the countries of central and eastern Europe in carrying out and consolidating political, legal and constitutional reform in parallel with economic reform,
• providing know-how in areas such as human rights, local democracy, education, culture and the environment.
What America does in Cuba is not really a matter that comes under their purview. But their resolution also “calls on European countries to refuse to comply with U.S. requests for extradition of terrorist suspects to the camp and urges the United States to stop violating Guantanamo detainees’ rights relating to their status as prisoners of war.”
Here are extensive excerpts from the Associated Press piece:
A Pentagon spokesman said the United States was running “a safe, humane and professional detention operation at Guantanamo that is providing valuable information in the war on terror.”
In a resolution, the Council of Europe also urged the United States to cease the practice of secret detentions and to investigate all instances of unlawful treatment of detainees at the naval base in eastern Cuba.
“The circumstances surrounding detentions by the USA at Guantanamo Bay show unlawfulness on grounds including the torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees,” said the resolution, adopted by the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly.
While supporting the United States in its efforts to fight terrorism, the resolution said Washington had “betrayed its own highest principles in the zeal with which it has attempted to pursue the war on terror.”
The U.S. government has denied using torture at the base, but investigations into alleged abuse there are ongoing.
“U.S. policy condemns and prohibits torture,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Flex Plexico said. “U.S. personnel are required to follow this policy and applicable law.”
He said Guantanamo detainees receive adequate shelter and clothing, culturally appropriate meals, the Quran, prayer beads, access to mail and reading materials, and medical care…
…”What we see in Guantanamo has nothing to do with justice,” council member Boris Oliynik said. “The conditions there are medieval.”
The resolution also criticizes the practice of “rendition,” or removing suspects to other countries without judicial supervision for purposes of interrogation or detention.
It also calls on European countries to refuse to comply with U.S. requests for extradition of terrorist suspects to the camp and urges the United States to stop violating Guantanamo detainees’ rights relating to their status as prisoners of war.
“The situation of prisoners at Guantanamo is very far from acceptable international standards,” said Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian Duma’s international affairs committee and member of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly…
This is just one more humiliation for the American people. Godwin’s Law be damned…
…that this is the same Europe that gave us the Inquisition.
Do you believe the Pentagon spokeman’s name is ‘Flex Plexico’?
Although is real first name is Alvin, Flex is just a nickname.
the Council of Europe has NOTHING to do with the European Union (not with the European Council, which is the meeting of the ministers of the European Union) – apart form the fact that they are both in Europe…
The Council of Europe was founded in 1949 and includes countries like Russia and Turkey. Members are supposed to apply the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, and they always do (even Russia and Turkey), even though the Council of Europe has no power over them.
As it is the “democracies’ club”, membership was seen as a badge of progress. Having Russia in has been the cause of much debate about whether they discredited the institution or if the moderating influence of the Council was worth it. This has not been decided, but Russia is a member, and they now have to face regular decisions condemning them in the court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
As I grew up 500m from the seat of the Council of Europe (which, at that time, used to loan its building to the European Parliament, just to confuse things a bit further…), this is a subject very dear to my heart…
While you are absolute correct that the Council of Europe and the EU are separate organizations with long independent histories, their memberships are converging, the EU is looking to guidance from the Council of Europe on human rights issues as new EU admittances are considered, and the evolution of the European Court of Human Rights as one of the few international courts whose decisions are usuually honored (better than the UN International Court of Justice can say), has led many people to contemplate a merger of the two organizations.
A merger, if one ever happened, with give the EU a broad social dimension to balance out its economic and naescent military wings.
Well, the new EU Constitution makes reference to the Declaration of Human Rights which is the base for the CoE, so there is indeed some harmonisation ( a favorite in eurospeak) but CoE has 45+ membership with countries that will never be in the EU like Russia.
I heard of plans to merge CoE with OSCE, yet another European acronym, this one including the US and Canada…
What is true is that the EU defers to the CoE for human rights issues, where the CoE is definitely the most prominent (and effective) international body.
in this country really got behind a powerful anti-torture bill? This is the time; the repubs already are looking more clearly like the radical, anti-contitutional loonies they are, and to come out as pro-torture too… An anti-torture bill can be tied to ‘national security’, supporting troups globally, human rights, and it doesn’t even cost the taxpayer anything. Getting with the OSCE might make this even more compelling. And it’s the right thing to do.
Alberto Gonzales and John Negroponte, not to mention the Iraq War Resolution, the same guys who have had a year since the unauthorized souvenir photos from Abu Ghraib were made available to the public, and other material decreed to be unsuitable for public consumption made available to them? Those guys?
They would open themselves up to charges of being flip-floppers.
And their corporate sponsors would not agree that it is the right thing to do at all. One hears no second-guessing of US policies from Raytheon and General Dynamics and Dyncorp, now, does one?
The Democrats are very pragmatic.
Yes, I guess I had better wait to propose that Shrub be impeached… Although just the thought of federal marshalls walking into the oval office and saying, “you’re going to have to come with us, sir, and you too, Mr Cheney” is what keeps me going.
My fantasy is a C-130 waiting outside, to haul the whole bunch of them – most of congress included – to the Hague, where they will be shown to clean, habitable cells, fed a nutritious diet, treated humanely and provided with counsel if they do not already have one, and await fair and open trials, after which, if convicted, they will be sentenced to productive, lucrative employment, under supervision so that they can cause no more harm to others, at the end of the day they will be escorted safely back to their clean habitable cell, and so will their life go, until they are dead, with every penny of their earnings beyond that needed for their basic expenses going to a fund for their victims and their families.
My one sadistic wish is that each cellblock have a turn sharing their cell with Ariel Sharon, whose nutritious diet will consist of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean (Kosher) meat, and legumes.
or they just get raptured and, to quote the great line,
“we get all their stuff”. But no more suv driving.
.
Invitation Outstanding!
We’ll clean-up a cell next to Milosevic, I believe he is pretty good at playing chess, which is pretty close to fuzzy math. For a hand of poker, you probably need Mljadic and Meyers to get a foursome, no problem as far as I’m concerned.
Dutch commando’s and F-16’s are in Afghanistan right now, and the Navy is due in the Persian Gulf shortly for patrols. As soon as Bush comes to The Hague, PM Balkenende can pull forces out of ME and defend the Dutch coastline near The Hague at Scheveningen.
The Dutch still have the German blue prints of the fortifications of the Atlantic Wall, the WWII protection of the main land from the Allied invasion. [most bunkers have been destroyed or buried in the dunes]
See The Hague Invasion Act Congress passed into law – just as a precaution!
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Have you ever had American cheese?
Resource seizure – it’s not just about oil!
😀
I think we would then find out how many people advocate torture out and out, and how many are willing to accept it for “national security”.
IIRC the FBI went on the record (or off the record/leaked) saying that the actual usefulness of information gained through torture is, as one might expect, dubious.
Neither ethics nor pragmatism seem to count today though…
at zero, number of European countries who have ended trade ties with US, still zero. Number of European countries willing to form a coalition to disarm the US and liberate the torture victims, let’s count ’em. Still zero.
Nothwithstanding all that, the Council’s remarks are noted and appreciated by those who have not yet been extraordinarily rendered or otherwise seized and hauled off to one of America’s many fine interrogation facilities.
Hundreds of people have been released from Gitmo in diplomatically brokered deals. Indeed, those deals have been the primarily means by which indefinitely detained people have managed to get out.
I think that it is fair to guess that the Council of Europe waited to make this declaration until its member nations got almost all of their people out of Gitmo, so that those people didn’t face retaliation.
Also, while a recalled ambassador from say France, might actually help Bush with his base, the E.U. can act behind the scenes to provide non-cooperation on U.S. initiatives like “War on Terror” cooperation and hostile U.N. source statements about Iran’s nuclear program. And, it is worth remembering that a lot of our European allies who were formerly “Coalition of the Willing” members have taken their troops can left Iraq or announced that they will do so in the near future. There is definitely tit-for-tat activity going on. It may not be a strong a stance as one might hope, but it isn’t nothing either.
And that issuing strongly-worded statements are about all they can do, without risking not only any piece of Amrika’s oilpie, but loss of the generous autonomy the US has allowed its European assets, and there is always the possiblility of “military” retaliation against obstructionist regimes, but that is less likely, not only because the European theatre has not yet been divested of its strategic assets, but because its population may be needed to replace the shrinking US consumer base.
I have a response now, everytime, everytime someone evokes “Godwin’s Law”, or says something along the lines of “Don’t call these fascists ‘Nazis‘ because they haven’t (or aren’t) going to build ethnic Death Camps. I don’t tolerate it anymore.
WARNING: METACOMMENT:
RETURN TO REGULAR COMMENT:
I posted this first in February. I’m ashamed I didn’t bring it to everyone’s attention back in ‘Ought 3.
AMERICAN DEATH CHAMBERS
In response to:
I wrote:
You could google American death chamber zentiger to find the original.
(Warning: Long Google cache of a dKos diary; my comment is about 1/3 of the way down. Better to just read the quote above. I posted this on dKos in February, although I wrote the original letter in June of 2003 (I was a serial lurker for a long, long time)).
American Death Camps. Not news since June 2003.
I have posted similar comments a dozen times all over dKos since.
Of course, no one has answered.
Godwin’s Law my ass.