In December 2014, when the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report on the CIA’s harsh interrogation and detention techniques at secret overseas facilities, United Nations Human Rights experts as well as Council on American-Islamic Relations called for accountability for those who overstepped the mark and asked the United States to bring the individuals responsible for the criminal conspiracy to justice and make them face criminal penalties commensurate with the gravity of their crimes.
The report’s findings pointed to serious federal crimes, including torture, homicide, conspiracy, and sexual assault and these findings warranted a comprehensive criminal investigation, believed the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). However, the Justice Department declared to a US court that it never opened the full report, let alone reviewed it for evidence of human rights violations and criminal wrongdoing.
On June 26, 2015, the world marked the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. On the occasion, more than 100 national and international human rights groups from around the world pushed the UN Human Rights Council to demand accountability for the CIA torture program and reparations to its victims.
“We call on the Council to send a strong message against impunity for torture and enforced disappearances and demand that the United States take measures to meet the full spectrum of its obligations under international law to ensure accountability, transparency, reparations and non-repetition, including declassification of the full Senate report on the CIA detention program, independent comprehensive criminal investigation, and the issuing of apologies and compensation to victims of enforced disappearance, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
“Continued impunity is a dark chapter in the history of the United States that threatens to undermine the universally-recognized prohibition against torture and other abusive treatment, and sends the dangerous message to US and foreign officials that there will be no consequences for future abuses. Other governments implicated in the CIA torture program must also be held accountable and are obligated to conduct independent investigations, hold perpetrators accountable, and provide effective remedies to victims of torture, enforced disappearance and other human rights violations,” the ACLU statement read.
During its next session in September, UN Human Rights Council will adopt the Working Group report on the United States’ Universal Periodic Review.
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