Counter Terror With Justice - Amnesty International
While perhaps the world's only constant is change, one hopes that the change we see is the change we seek: moving, even if only slowly, toward our common aspirations. In 1948, the world's leaders declared the Universal Declaration a "common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations". It was a long-term commitment that served as a foundation for many of the legal instruments we (as individuals, organizations, and states) rely on today. Yet increasingly, even countries once heralded as leaders in human rights, have moved in the opposite direction.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
- "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
Yet, the United States government, for example, even in the name of protecting its citizens' 'freedom from fear' is has undermined the very principles meant to protect that freedom. Torture, and extraordinary renditions that facilitate torture; secret prisons with secret tribunals; arrest & detention without charge - these are clear examples of where the United States as a government and we as a global community are falling short. But even in the face of a great power's backward slide, we can reclaim our rights.
Mary Robinson has joined Amnesty International's campaign to "Counter Terror with Justice" to bring the harsh realities of illegal detention to concerned citizens around the United States.
A replica of a maximum-security cell from the detention site at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay will tour major U.S. cities through the summer.
The tour, organized by Amnesty International, aims to give people a glimpse of the harsh realities of illegal detention and prolonged isolation. The tour will include a stop in Washington D.C. on 26 June, to mark International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Amnesty International USA, the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Bar Assn. have appealed to Washington to end what they see as a breach of law.
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Mary Robinson visited the cell in Miami on 10 May and spoke to Amnesty International activists who had gathered for a concert and rally.
The first cells, chain-link pens topped with razor wire, were erected and filled in January 2002 at the base in southern Cuba. The replica includes a steel toilet, florescent lights, frosted windows and a sliding metal door. Many detainees are held in isolation in similar conditions for as long as 23 hours a day.
We can't protect human rights by violating them, or uphold our principles by setting them aside. So as individuals we have to stand up; as citizens, we have to speak out; and as members of the global community, we have to work together, once again, toward our common aspirations and human rights as a common standard of achievement.
