MF urges President-elect Obama to reaffirm US’s commitment to torture ban
As the US prepares to usher in a new administration, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (MF) has called on incoming President Obama to act immediately on his pledges to end torture.
In a letter to the president-elect ahead of his inauguration on January 20th, the organisation calls on him to make a public announcement condemning torture and reasserting the US's commitment to the absolute nature of the torture ban.
"It is well known that the previous administration sought to reinterpret the torture ban in order to justify the use of extreme interrogation techniques in the ‘war on terror'. Unquestionably, this has undermined the international reputation of the US as a champion of human rights and the rule of law," write CEO Simon Carruth and Chair of Trustees Alison Wetherfield.
"The Medical Foundation strongly believes that steps taken by the previous administration to repudiate these problematic interpretations of the torture ban have been insufficient and unconvincing. Further action is urgently required in order to defeat perceptions across the world that the US has legitimised torture, via both its policies and practices, in a quest for security."
Senior US personnel have already admitted that interrogation practices used at Guantánamo met the legal definition of torture, including those used against detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani, whose case was examined by MF psychiatrist Dr Abigail Seltzer as part of Philippe Sands' enquiry into the US administration's recourse to illegal interrogation methods in his book Torture Team.
Eric H. Holder Jnr, Obama's nominee for Attorney-General, also recently declared that waterboarding is torture, acknowledging a fact which has long been clear from the testimonies of victims of this practice from across the world who have been treated by the MF.
Obama has indicated that under his administration, the US "does not torture" and will abide by the Geneva Conventions. Reinforcing these gestures with a firm commitment that is binding on all agencies is important now more than ever.
The MF has also joined the wave of mounting calls on the president-elect to honour his commitment to close down Guantánamo Bay as quickly possible, and to instigate an investigation into claims that US personnel have been complicit in the torture of detainees at the camp and also at other detention facilities operated by the US around the world.