ICRC
Regional Delegation for the United States and Canada
Click here to access the following stories from the ICRC December 2010 Newsletter:
By Erica Laster Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
NEW YORK, United States – At the behest of Human Rights groups and activists, the British have issued a ban on the export of lethal injection drug sodium thiopental to the United States. The United Kingdom originally opposed the ban under the assumption that someone else would provide the drug to the U.S. and that the drug was only being used for medicinal purposes. Some States have sought other means to execute prisoners, including the use of drugs commonly used to kill animals.
Reprieve, a legal charity, campaigned for the past month in support of banning the drug used in executions. The charities Director, Clive Stafford Smith expressed concern that a number of prisoners are set to be executed in California this week. According to Smith, “”There is urgent work to do. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation – so named, notwithstanding their plan to execute a number of prisoners – expects to receive enough drugs to kill 86 people this week, perhaps as early as today, probably again from Britain.” Smith remains hopeful that urgent steps are taken to prevent any current shipments from reaching the corrections facility.
The charity further notes that British pharmaceutical company Archimedes Palma may have unknowingly been used as the U.S. source for supplying the drug used for lethal injections.
With such protests and oppositions to the use of drugs for lethal injections, states are finding other methods to continue executions. Oklahoma for instance, is attempting to use Phenobarbital as a replacement: a common drug used to kill animals.
An order issued by British Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable requires that companies seeking to export the drug abroad must prove that the sodium thiopental will be used for the purpose of legitimate medicinal purposes and not execution.
The ban is the result of Reprieve and British based law firm Leigh Day’s suit in support of the ban. Leigh Day attorney Jamie Beagent praised the Secretary of State’s decision as one that “has finally come to recognize that banning drugs from the UK for use in executions overseas is the morally right thing to do.”
For More Information Please Visit:
IPS – Britain Bans Exports of Execution Drug Sought by U.S. – 30 November 2010
BBC News – US Lethal Injection Drug Faces UK export Restrictions – 29 November 2010
Washington Post – British Imposes Controls On Lethal Injection Drug – 29 November 2010
By Ricardo Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter Europe
NUREMBERG, Germany – An exhibit commemorating the Nuremburg trials opened its doors to the public on Sunday. The display is located at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, the building where several Nazis were sentenced to death between November 20, 1945 and October 1, 1946.
The exhibit, commemorating the 65th anniversary of the trials, features original documents and archival material including photo, video and audio displays. Also on display are the original docks and seats where countless Nazi leaders such as Hermann Goering and Marin Bormann sat to face charges.
One of the major attractions is the famed Court Room 600, the room where some of the most significant trials were held 65 years ago. The well-preserved and still-functioning court is open to the public when it is not presently in use.
Among those in attendance for the grand opening was 90 year-old Benjamin Ferencz, one of the original U.S. prosecutors at the trials. In 1943, Ferencz, then 23 and fresh out of Harvard Law School, began gathering evidence of Nazi crimes as the concentration camps were liberated. Just four years later he found himself chief prosecutor at the trial of 22 Nazis.
Ferencz noted, “When I left Germany for the first time after World War II and left Nuremberg, my biggest regret was that I never heard from any German saying ‘I’m sorry.’ I would never have believed that I would come back 60 years later and would hear a completely difference voice and a different plan in the same country.”
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, also in attendance, expressed how the trials set a precedent for the development of international law. Indeed, not only were the trials the first to establish the legal precedent of crimes against humanity, they also made way for the International Criminal Court.
“Because a lot was risked here in Nuremberg – politically, legally and personally – international law was able to develop and rules could be set out for future cases,” Westerwelle said.
In his closing remarks Ferencz emphasized that prevention is the goal, not punishment. “By the time you are punishing you have failed,” he warned. Before stepping down, Ferencz left the audience with a final question: “How far have we come?”
For more information please see:
CBC – Nuremberg Trials Explored in Museum Exhibit – November 22, 2010
DEUTSCHE WELLE – How Far Have We Come? Nuremberg Trials Museum Opens – November 21, 2010
RIANOVOSTI – Museum on Nuremberg Trials Opens Doors in Germany – November 21, 2010
By Ricardo Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter Europe
STRASBOURG, France – A recent investigation in the Greek prison system revealed severe police abuses against detainees. The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), the experts that lead the investigation, report that police conduct, at times, bordered on torture.
In its report, the CPT notes instances of detainees being punched, kicked, beaten with clubs and even threatened with rape.
While the below-par living conditions in Greece’s prisons are not novel, the increasing detention has many human rights and political groups worried that living conditions and abuses will worsen.
In response to such concerns, the Council of Europe is calling on Europe to help Greece process inmates.
The “Dublin II Regulation” is major reason Greece is receiving so many migrants. The regulation is an EU law that determines which state is responsible for looking into an asylum-seeker’s application.
While it aims to consider the legitimate concerns of asylum seekers and irregular migrants, the living conditions individuals face by being sent to Greek prisons under its guise indicates indifference.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and human rights groups are calling for the stop of returns under the regulation because of the inadequate protection against inhuman conditions in Greece.
The European Court of Human Rights seems to share those concerns. In a recent opinion it appealed to Austria, the Netherlands and Britain not to send any individuals back to Greece.
“Greece should not carry the burden of receiving the vast majority of all irregular migrants entering the European Union,” said Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture. “In a number of Criminal Investigation Departments, I found more than 40 foreigners held in administrative detention in office space temporarily used as make-shift cells,” he added.
Nowak stressed that such conditions clearly violated Articles 7 and 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Articles 7 and 10 were adopted to curtail inhuman and degrading treatment.
Monsters and Critics reported that while the Greek government is planning on changing its system of expulsion centers, it has rejected the allegations of serious abuse of detainees.
For more information, please see:
Monsters and Critics – Council of Europe Group Blasts Greece Over Prison Abuses – 11.17.2010
Radio Free Europe – EU Sends Border Team To Greece Over Immigrants – 10.25.10
Global Nation – EU Urged to Help Greece Deal With Irregular Migrants – 10.24.10