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10 February 2011 By Bill
Quigley Justice for George W's torture
violations jumped much closer this weekend.
Ex-President George W Bush was supposed to fly to
Switzerland to speak in Geneva February 15. But his
speech was cancelled over the weekend because of
concerns about protests and efforts by human rights
organizations asking Swiss prosecutors to charge Bush
with torture and serve him with an arrest warrant. Two things made this possible.
Switzerland allows the prosecution of human rights
violators from other countries if the violator is on
Swiss soil and George W admitted he authorized water
boarding detainees in his recent memoir. Torture is
internationally banned by the Convention Against
Torture. The European Center for
Constitutional and Human Rights, the International
Federation for Human Rights, and the US-based Center
for Constitutional Rights prepared criminal complaints
with more than 2500 pages of supporting material to
submit to the Swiss prosecutor. These criminal
complaints were signed by more than 60 human rights
organizations world wide and by the former UN Special
Rapporteur on Torture, the former UN Special
Rapporteur on Independence of Judges and Lawyers, and
Nobel Peace Prize recipients Shirin Ebadi and Perez
Esquivel. Amnesty International, which has
repeatedly called for criminal investigation of
torture by GWB, sent Swiss prosecutors a detailed
legal and factual analysis of President Bush's
criminal responsibility for torture. While some traditionalists in the
human rights community scoff at the notion that GWB
and others will ever be held accountable for their
violations, experts disagree. "Nobody – from those who
administered the practices to those at the top of the
chain of command – is under a shield of absolute
immunity for the practices of secret detention,
extraordinary rendition and torture," Martin Scheinin,
UN special rapporteur on human rights and professor of
public international law at the European University
Institute told The Guardian. "Legally this case is
quite clear. Bush does not enjoy immunity as a former
head of state, and he has command responsibility for
the decisions that were taken." Similar efforts to prosecute
former President Bush, former Bush lawyers Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales, Federal Appeals Court Judge
Jay Bybee, John Yoo, William J. Haynes II, David
Addington, and Douglas J Feith are proceeding in
Spain. All of these international
efforts to seek justice for the human rights
violations committed by the Bush administration are
possible only because the US has refused to prosecute
– another disappointment by the Obama administration.
Ironically, February 7 is the
ninth anniversary of the date when GWB unilaterally
decided that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to
enemy combatants. GWB denied, as most facing criminal
charges do, that the possibility of prosecution was
involved at all in the decision to cancel his trip. The human rights community
promised to pursue Bush and the other human rights
violators whenever they leave the US. Katherine
Gallagher and Claire Tixiere, the lead lawyers
authoring the 2500 page criminal case in Geneva
stated: "The reach of the Convention Against Torture
is wide – this case is prepared and will be waiting
for him wherever he travels next. Torturers – even if
they are former presidents of the United States – must
be held to account and prosecuted. Impunity for Bush
must end." Bill is Legal Director of the
Center for Constitutional Rights and law professor at
Loyola University New Orleans. For more on the Bush
Torture Indictment see
http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/bush-torture-indictment
You can reach Bill Quigley at
quigley77@gmail.com |
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