TORTURE: CRUEL. INHUMANE. DEGRADES US ALL:
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Speak out and challenge torture
Questions and answers:
Stop Torture is one of Amnesty's top priorities, this includes the War on Terror.
AI's 12-Point Program to Prevent Torture.
Update: Received letter from The White House due to numerous signed petitions. We continue to use this petition.
Thanks, The Concert Ladies
This is a two page petition. It is best to be copied front to back so the narritive is included when sent to the recipients.
To print: highlight starting at the next line below. Then tell your printer to print "selection."
TORTURE: CRUEL. INHUMANE. DEGRADES US ALL.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: STOP! INVESTIGATE! PROSECUTE!
Anyone detained has the right to be promptly brought before an independent judicial officer to challenge the lawfulness of their detention.
Torture or any other treatment that is cruel, inhuman or degrading is, immoral and illegal, and always wrong.
All governments should publicly denounce such abuse in the strongest possible terms, and never allow it to happen at home or abroad.
All governments should use national and international law to prosecute anyone who has been directly or indirectly responsible for torture or other forms of ill-treatment.
No one should be sent to a country where they may be tortured or subjected to any other form of treatment that is cruel, inhuman and degrading.
Security will not be best protected by subjecting prisoners to torture and ill-treatment but by respecting everyone?s human rights.
Torture does not stop terror. Torture is terror.
Torture harms the victim and brutalizes the perpetrator and the societies that allow it to happen. It is cruel, inhuman and degrades us all.
WE the undersigned urge:
STOP!
-- Stop torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment: make clear that these are prohibited and will not be tolerated in any instance, including the ?war on terror.?
-- Detainees must be charged with a recognizable criminal offence and tried according to international standards of fairness. Charge detainees under US law in US courts or release them
-- Stop secret and incommunicado detentions, and "disappearances." These are human rights violations in themselves and conditions, which encourage and facilitate torture and allow it to thrive.
-- End the practice of sending people to countries ("rendition") where they risk torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
-- Diplomatic assurances should not be relied upon in deciding whether a person is at risk of torture or ill-treatment if transferred to another country.
-- Prevent the use of information obtained under torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
INVESTIGATE!
-- The US Congress should establish an independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate the actions of all relevant US agencies in all aspects of the US detention and interrogation policies and practices in the ?war on terror? anywhere in the world: in Bagram, in Afghanistan, Abu Ghrai,b in Iraq, and secret locations elsewhere.
-- The US Attorney General should appoint an independent Special Counsel to carry out a criminal investigation into the conduct of any official against whom there is evidence of involvement in crimes in the ?war on terror".
-- All places of detention should be open to international and independent scrutiny.
PROSECUTE!
-- All states and countries should investigate and prosecute alleged perpetrators of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, wherever it has occurred.
-- The US authorities should prosecute any individual against whom there is evidence of having committed, ordered or authorized torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
TORTURE: CRUEL. INHUMANE. DEGRADES US ALL.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: STOP! INVESTIGATE! PROSECUTE!
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Send to:
The Honorable Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street, N.W., Washington DC 20520, USA
The President G. W. Bush, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC 20500, USA
Senator John Warner, Ranking Member, Armed Service Comm, 225 Russell Office Building, Washington DC 20510-2202
Senator Carl Levin, Chair of Armed Service Comm, 269 Russell Office Building, Washington DC 20510-2202