The Truth Will Out – Except, Perhaps, In The US

In The US Human rights laws and greater transparency have improved administration of justice internationally – but not yet under the Obama administrationBy Rupert Skilbeck June 22, 2010 "The Guardian" --

Courts around the world are being asked to uphold society's right to the truth about human rights violations and to hold public inquiries. The "Don't Look Back" policy of the Obama administration fails to do the same for victims of rendition.

In 1972, a small guerrilla movement of students and workers emerged from the Araguaia River region in Brazil, seeking to foment a popular uprising to overthrow the military dictatorship that had been in power since 1964. Over the next two years the Brazilian army brutally suppressed the movement, arresting and torturing members. More than 60 disappeared, their fate still unknown.

With the restoration of democracy in 1982, legal proceedings were brought by the families of the disappeared who sought the truth about what happened to their sons, brothers and fathers, where they were buried, as well as an official recognition of their deaths. But the claims ran foul of Brazil's 1979 amnesty laws which prohibit any legal action over torture and killings by the military dictatorship. On 30 April this year, the country's supreme court upheld the amnesty, finding that the actions of the military regime were political in nature and therefore covered by the law.

Three weeks later, the question of the legitimacy of the amnesty was heard by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica in a different case brought by the family of one of the guerrillas. The family argued that the amnesty laws violated their right to information, their right to justice, and their right to the truth, all of which are elements of personal integrity protected by article 5 of the American convention on human rights.

At the Open Society Justice Initiative, we have filed an amicus curiae brief which argued that there is a legally enforceable right to the truth for both the victims of human rights violations and for society as a whole. Judicial decisions and soft law standards have confirmed that the right is a broad one, sufficient to allow the public to know about the underlying conditions that led to past abuses which should ensure that such conditions do not reoccur.

The long-awaited publication of the Saville report into Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland is an example of a very public truth-telling exercise. The unequivocal findings of the report were welcomed by the families of the victims as a vindication of their campaign for the truth, demonstrating the importance of that right even 38 years later. In his statement to the House of Commons, David Cameron quoted the family member of a victim who said "the truth coming out can help set people free." In a different context, William Hague's swift decision – as the new foreign secretary – to order a full public inquiry into allegations of involvement in torture by the previous government has been welcomed by the Council of Europe as a "proper response" that might be an example to other countries.

These efforts to expose the truth stand in stark contrast to the "Don't Look Back" policy of Barack Obama, who has made clear that there will be no accountability for human rights violations that occurred under the Bush administration. This week, the US supreme court declined to review the government claim of "state secrets" in the case of Mohamed Arar, the Canadian who was seized at JFK airport in New York on the basis of incorrect information provided by Canada's mounted police and then rendered to Syria for torture. In the absence of any US prosecutions, it appears that the Canadian mounted force is now mounting an investigation into crimes committed allegedly by US agents.

Also this week, the Justice Initiative announced the filing of a case against Macedonia to the European court of human rights for collusion in the CIA rendition of a German citizen, Khaled El-Masri, to Afghanistan, where he was held for four months in terrible conditions. The Strasbourg-based court is being asked to give an opinion on whether the behaviour of the CIA rendition team at Skopje airport amounted to torture, and whether by knowingly assisting in sending him to Afghanistan, Macedonia is responsible for what happened next. Legal proceedings in the US also fell victim to the "state secrets" doctrine, and now Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, seems to be maintaining the position of her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, in refusing even to acknowledge in public that the operation occurred.

The story of the secret rendition programme is sufficiently compelling to prevent it from being forgotten – and the full details will eventually be revealed. But given the attitude of the Obama administration, it seems that justice for the victims will not come from a public inquiry in the US, but from the dogged persistence of foreign investigators, lawyers, prosecutors, and judges who are determined to find the truth.

Rupert Skilbeck is a barrister and litigation director for the Open Society Justice Initiative in New York

Blogger Comment:
Do not get fooled like me and many good Christians, Muslims and Jews. This is an empire and there is always someone to play the role. It was Bush when they were using the fake democracy when they were going after oil and domination of the Middle East. Obama is the soft one who will make peace and meanwhile he did not investigate all war crimes of Bush enterprise or tortures.

He did not even care about any abuses in the underground prisons of the empire. The American people are quite aware now and no one will be fooled. It is an empire and they are the players. The most important is to have tight control of the public through the media. The last joke I heared it form one of the emperors of the empire to shut off the Internet, like it is his home TV.

Look this country was built on freedom not that of the false prophet George Bush where freedom is a plan to forward your agenda. By the way wasnot this crazy guy Saddam their best friend and actually they supplied him by the chemicals to wipe out the Iranians. As you see they took my passport to hold me in America and they will regret it. The peaceful revolution is on the march. There is no reason why American people should suffer while the politicians are living in luxury with their friends the CEO's. The Arab/Muslim world now know the game well.