On January 16, the European Courtroom of Human Rights issued an necessary ruling within the context of accountability for abuses perpetrated in the course of the United States-led “warfare on terror”. Within the case of Mustafa al-Hawsawi v Lithuania, the court docket discovered that the latter violated the European Conference on Human Rights as a consequence of its complicity within the CIA’s secret detention programme and its mistreatment of al-Hawsawi, a Saudi nationwide.
Lithuania was ordered to pay compensation to the sufferer price $108,660 for the time he was at “Detention Website Violet”, a CIA black web site it hosted. Al-Hawsawi is at present detained on the Guantánamo Bay detention centre, alongside 29 different Muslim males.
This judgment is the newest in a collection of court docket rulings holding European nations accountable for his or her involvement in post-9/11 abuses. The European Courtroom beforehand dominated in opposition to Poland, Romania, Italy and Macedonia.
Different European establishments, together with the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, in addition to particular person European nations, have additionally taken measures for accountability, though they haven’t all the time been splendid. The UK paid over $28.8m to Iraqi victims for documented warfare crimes and abuses throughout its involvement within the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Moreover, compensation was offered to British residents detained in Guantánamo and to 2 Libyan households who had been kidnapped and tortured with the assistance of British intelligence. Nonetheless, the UK deserted an unbiased inquiry into post-9/11 extraordinary rendition and torture by its forces and closed an investigation into alleged crimes in Iraq.
Italy convicted in absentia 23 People, together with CIA brokers and an air drive colonel, for kidnapping Hassan Nasr, an Egyptian imam primarily based in Milan and handing him over to Egypt, the place he was tortured. An Italian court docket additionally sentenced the previous army intelligence chief and his former deputy to 10 and 9 in jail respectively for his or her involvement within the case.
Sweden compensated Mohammed Alzery and Ahmed Agiza, who had been forcibly deported to Egypt on the request of the CIA and tortured. Prosecutors additionally opened investigations in France, Portugal and Spain over the CIA’s use of their airports for renditions, though they didn’t lead to formal fees. There stays an ongoing legal investigation into CIA actions in Poland.
Canada, too, apologised and paid $8.1m to Omar Khadr, a Canadian nationwide, over its function in his imprisonment in Guantánamo; it additionally compensated Maher Arar, one other Canadian nationwide, with the identical quantity over its function within the US authorities’s choice to deport him to Syria, the place he was detained for a yr and tortured.
Whereas these court docket circumstances and settlements spotlight efforts to deliver to justice European and different nations complicit within the abuses perpetrated in the course of the “warfare on terror”, they underscore the persistent lack of accountability for the US, its chief architect and chief.
As a state occasion to the Conference in opposition to Torture and Different Merciless, Inhuman or Degrading Therapy or Punishment, the US is obligated to offer redress to survivors of torture carried out by its authorities forces. However authorized limitations have typically prevented survivors from pursuing justice in US courts.
By invoking the state secrets and techniques privilege, for instance – most not too long ago utilized in the US v Zubaydah case – the federal government can withhold info it deems delicate to nationwide safety. Within the lawsuit filed by Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi-born Palestinian man at present held in Guantanamo, the defence sought proof about his torture that the federal government argued would hurt nationwide safety; the Supreme Courtroom dominated within the authorities’s favour.
Equally, traditionally, court docket dismissals, have been the results of the US authorities citing immunity – which has protected its forces in addition to personal contractors.
The US has additionally bypassed international and regional devices of justice. It has warned of reprisals in opposition to the Worldwide Legal Courtroom if it launches an investigation into US crimes in Afghanistan. Moreover, it maintains that the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man isn’t binding, rendering choices and suggestions from the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights (IACHR) nonbinding. In 2020, the IACHR discovered the US chargeable for the torture, abuse and indefinite detention of Djamel Ameziane, a former Guantanamo detainee, and advisable the US compensate him, which the US authorities has not finished thus far.
There have been solely minimal steps in the direction of accountability throughout the US judicial system. An investigation into abuse at Abu Ghraib jail resulted within the court docket martial of 11 low-level troopers. An Obama-era investigation into 101 CIA interrogations that used “enhanced interrogation methods” discovered solely two merited additional inquiries. In 2012, the investigation was closed with out additional motion.
In accordance with Human Rights Watch, out of 506 claims made as of 2007 underneath the International Claims Act, which permits overseas nationals to hunt compensation, there’s a report of just one being paid – $1,000 for illegal detention in Iraq.
Settlements had been reached in two lawsuits in opposition to personal army contractors. In 2013, a defence contractor paid $5.28m to 71 former detainees held in Abu Ghraib and different black websites. In 2017, a case introduced by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three torture victims reached a confidential settlement with psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, who had been paid over $80m by the US authorities to create the torture programme.
And regardless of 18 dismissal makes an attempt, a lawsuit launched by 4 Iraqi torture victims in opposition to authorities contractor CACI Worldwide for torture at Abu Ghraib is heading to trial.
These lawsuits and investigations have fallen wanting adequately addressing the size and severity of the hurt inflicted on victims in the course of the “warfare on terror”. Lack of redress additional compounds the struggling of those that have endured bodily and psychological trauma. So far, no senior authorities or army official has been held chargeable for post-9/11 insurance policies and actions.
The US stays unwilling to face accountability for acts of torture, because it continues to detain 30 males in Guantánamo in situations that quantity to ongoing merciless therapy. It’s lengthy late for a reckoning. The US isn’t above worldwide legislation and should not be allowed to proceed dodging justice.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.