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U.S. Court of Appeals Denies Relief to Torture Victim

 

By Stephen Kopko   

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

NEW YORK, United States – The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled on Monday that a Canadian man cannot sue former United States government officials for civil damages. Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer, claimed that he was held in the United States by law enforcement and then transported to Syria where he was tortured.

In 2002, Arar was apprehended at JFK Airport by law enforcement. U.S. and Canadian officials suspected Arar had links to Al Qaeda. He was held in New York for thirteen days and then transported to Syria. Arar was imprisoned in Syria for one year and claimed he was tortured. He was released in 2003 and returned to Canada. The Canadian government later acknowledged they provided the U.S. with faulty information about Arar’s links to terrorism. The government also compensated Arar with ten million dollars.

The U.S. used the practice of extraordinary rendition to detain and then to transport Arar to Syria. Extraordinary rendition is the government policy of transporting suspects of terrorism to other countries for detention and interrogation. The suspects are not charged with a crime or provided with a legal hearing. The policy has been used by U.S. intelligence agencies since the mid-1990s. It was employed by the Bush Administration after the September 11, 2001 attacks as a tool to fight the war on terror.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that questions regarding extraordinary rendition and the remedies that stem from its usage are legislative questions. It also said the separation of powers would be violated if the Court found an appropriate remedy where one did not exist. Further, the Court stated that if it was to ask questions regarding extraordinary rendition, U.S. foreign relations would be compromised and other countries would be less willing to exchange or cooperate in interrogating terrorists.

In his dissent, Judge Barrington Parker countered the majority’s separation of powers argument, writing that the judiciary has the power to hear the case and issue a remedy because of the system of checks and balances. Judge Guido Calabresi wrote that the majority’s opinion was in “utter subservience to the executive branch.”

For more information, please see:

MSNBC – Appeals Court: Detained Canadian Cannot Sue the U.S. – 2 November 2009

New York Times – Federal Appeals Court Rejects Rendition Suit by Maher Arar – 2 November 2009

USA Today – Court: Victims of ‘Extraordinary Rendition’ Can’t Sue U.S. Unless Congress Approves – 2 November 2009

Canada Plans to Cut Down Refugee Acceptance

By William Miller

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

OTTAWA, Canada – Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said that Canada plans to cut the number of people receiving refugee status next year. Specifically, the plan will target those who make their claim for refugee status after entering the country. The plan expects to give refugee status to between nine and twelve thousand people who filed their claim after arriving in Canada. This is less than half of what was expected in 2006.

Kenney, who promised to unveil a plan for reform before Christmas, has long criticized the current refugee system as being inefficient and ripe for abuse. Canada currently spends 29,000 dollars per claimant and had a backlog of 60,000 claims when Kenney made his promise last month.

The process can take up to five years and provides three stages of appeal in federal court. Kenney called this inefficiency “an advertisement for people to come and abuse the system.” He has alleged that the system is commonly abused by what he calls “bogus claimants” who come to the country illegally and receive advice from “phony immigration consultants” on how to cheat the system and gain refugee status.

Kenney has criticized the current plans consideration of those who enter the country illegally, saying “We want to ensure that we don’t end up with a two-tier immigration system, one tier for legal law-abiding immigrants who wait patiently to come to Canada the legal way, and another that incentizes (sic) false refugee claimants to come through the back door.”

The cuts have been met with criticism from those who fear the plan is insensitive to the hardships prospective refugees are looking to escape. Immigration critic Olivia Chow stated: “Beatings, torture, suffering and even deaths will occur and unfortunately many will be turned away. Canada is no longer a land of hope and compassion.”

Canada’s current immigration system accepts a great deal of people seeking refugee status, many of whom enter the country illegally before filing their claim. In 2008, Canada accepted 22,000 refugees many of whom had applied after arriving in Canada. In 2006, tolerance for in-country applications peaked in Canada, with an estimate of between 22,500 and 28,800 applications for refugee status from those already in the country. Just last month, on October 17, Canadian authorities stopped seventy-six Tamil refugees trying to enter the country illegally to escape oppression in Sri Lanka. Those men will be able to apply for refugee status despite concerns that there may be members of the Tamil tigers hiding among them. Tamil tigers are a rebel group currently at war with the government in Sri Lanka.

For more information, please see:

Ottawa Citizen – Immigration Minister Jason Kenney Cuts Refugee Targets for 2010 – 2 November 2009

Ottawa Citizen – Would-be Migrants will Face Tough Scrutiny: Kenney – 20 October 2009

National Post – Refugee System Reforms in Works, Kenny Says – 7 October 2009

Canada Calls for UN Inspectors to Focus on Iran

By William Miller,

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

OTTAWA, Canada – A Canadian drafted UN resolution released on Thursday, October 29 sharply criticized Iran for their continuing violations of human rights. Canada has proposed such resolutions before but this resolution is the first to criticize UN Special Investigators for their failure investigate Iran’s atrocious human rights violations.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon suggested that this resolution will be the strongest Criticism of Iran’s human rights violations drafted by Canada. Cannon has been historically critical of Iran and led a walkout in protest of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month at the UN Delegation.

Canada has emerged as the leader in attacking Iran’s human rights violations and have drafted all resolutions criticizing such violations since 2003. In that year, an Iranian born photojournalist named Zahara Kazemi was arrested, tortured and killed in Iran. The Canadian resolutions stemming from this incident have been unanimously supported by the UN despite persistent attacks on procedural grounds by Iran.

The current resolution will be the first one to criticize inspectors by asking them to focus more intensely on Iran. Past resolutions drafted by Canada have called for Iranian cooperation but have fallen short of criticizing inspectors. The draft specifically mentions inspectors who focus their investigations in areas of human rights such as extra-judicial executions, torture, free speech suppression, persecution of human rights activists, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearances. Iran has issued a standing invitation to such investigators but has consistently ignored attempts by investigators looking to visit the country and has not filled a single request in four years.

UN inspectors are already facing criticism for not focusing their efforts on countries like Iran and instead placing the majority of their attention on developed democracies. Critics say that developed countries already have the systems in place to deal with violations and that countries like Iran, where the inspectors are truly needed, are left unchecked. Inspector Gay MacDougal was mentioned as one of the unnecessary inspectors. MacDougal focuses on minorities and was investigating Canada as the resolution was being finished. So far fifty percent of the countries visited by McDougal have been mature democracies like Canada.

The resolution specifically accuses Iran of “persistent failure to uphold due process of law rights, and violation of rights of detainees, including defendants held without charge or incommunicado, the systematic and arbitrary use of prolonged solitary confinement, and lack of timely access to legal representation.” The resolution also alleges increased discrimination against minorities pointing to the 2008 arrest of Bahai religious leaders who are currently still being held. Other specific examples of human rights abuses mentioned in the resolution include flogging, amputation and stoning.

For more information, please see:

National Post – Of Toronto & Tehran – 30 October 2009

Washington TV – Canada Urges UN Investigators to Focus on Rights abuses in Iran – 30 October 2009

Ottawa Citizen – Canada Unveils UN Resolution Blasting Iran’s Rights Record – 29 October 2009

The Vancouver Sun – Canada Tries to Focus UN Spotlight on Iran’s Human Rights Record – 28 October

3 UN Workers Killed in DRC Clashes

By Jared Kleinman

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

KINSHASA, Congo — Three United Nations workers died during clashes between the Congolese military and a militia earlier this week, the U.N. said Tuesday.

Heavily armed rebels attacked the town of Mbandaka and overran the airport, UN officials said. Fighting between the U.N.-backed military and Enyele militiamen in northern Congo began Sunday and continued into Monday.

During the two days of clashes in northern Congo, a South African pilot and a U.N. peacekeeper from Ghana were killed. The U.N. said one of its subcontractors also died Sunday of a heart attack during the fighting. Several civilians were also killed in the attack. Dr. Alexis Isanzola told The Associated Press Tuesday that 26 corpses have been received at the local mortuary in Mbandaka since Sunday.

Col. Makengo, commander of the Congo army in northern Bandaka, told The Associated Press that the army re-seized the airport on Monday with the backing of the U.N. Mission in Congo after militia took it over Sunday. He said the army would continue pursuing the militia.

The Congolese army started battling Enyele militiamen in November after fighting started between the Enyele and Munzale tribesmen. The two rival ethnic groups have reportedly been fighting for local fishing rights. The local dispute is entirely separate from the fighting between numerous armed groups in eastern DR Congo, which has drawn the world’s biggest peacekeeping operation to the country.

Mbandaka is the capital of Equateur province, where at least 100 people were killed in clashes between the Lobala and Boba communities last year, displacing an estimated 200,000 people. Between 30 and 100 fighters were believed to have been part of the latest attack.

The UN is currently in talks with DR Congo officials on withdrawing its 20,500-strong peacekeeping mission, MONUC. The mission’s current mandate expires in May. UN officials say that this new fighting might put such a withdrawal in question.

For more information, please see:

AP – UN: 3 UN Personnel Killed in North Congo clashes – 6 April 2010

Rocketnews – UN Workers Killed in DR Congo Raid – 4 April, 2010

BBC – DR Congo Attack Kills Two UN Workers – 4 April 2010

 

 

Human Trafficking Violates Antislavery Convention, Says European Human Rights Court

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

STRASBOURG, France – The outcome of a human trafficking case involving a Russian woman transported to Cyprus has resulted in a significant change in the definition of human slavery and the protection of immigrants for many nations in Europe.

In its ruling on Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) determined that the act of human trafficking violates the antislavery provisions of the treaty for which all nations who are party to the European Convention on Human Rights are subject to.  Under this new application of the Court’s jurisdiction, each member nation that is the destination or origin of a sex trafficking case is required to independently investigate this matter.

The events that brought about this change in law centered on Oxana Rancheva, a young Russian woman who died after she had been transported to Cyprus in 2001 for the purpose of working in a cabaret.  Rancheva died while attempting to flee in March of 2001 from an apartment building in which she had been held against her while.  Following her death, her father brought her case before the ECHR.  In review of the facts of this case, the ECHR concluded that both Russia and Cyprus had failed to properly investigate the parties that had engaged in the human trafficking in their respective countries.

The Court found Russia and Cyprus to have violated Article Four of the European Convention on slavery.  Cyprus also “violated the girl’s right to life and right to protection under the law” by failing to determine how Rancheva had arrived in Cyprus and what she was doing there, while Russia should have done more to determine how Rancheva was originally recruited to perform in a foreign cabaret.  The Court ordered the government of Cyprus to pay damages to the family of the woman involved.

The Court decision was welcomed by immigrant rights groups.  Doros Polycarpou, the leader of one such group in Cyrus, commented that the Court’s ruling was significant because “the Republic of Cyprus must finally get the message that we are no longer an isolated village where whatever we do stays between us.”

Rancheva had arrived in Cyprus on an artist visa, a bureaucratic instrument that the Court commented had been used in recent years to allow for the importation of women to the island nation to be exploited.  Three thousand such visas were issued in 2007.  Calls from international organizations for the elimination of this type of visa loophole resulted in its recent discontinuance.

Prior to the Court’s decision, the national government of Cyprus had publicly acknowledged its violations of international law in regards to this case.  However, the ECHR decided to rule on this case anyway, breaking with the court’s past tradition on not hearing cases in which “the defendant admits guilt”.

For more information, please see:

CYPRUS MAIL – ‘Handed over as if she was his possession’ – 9 January 2010

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Rights Court Raises Sex-Trafficking Oversight – 8 January 2010

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE – Cyprus and Russia violated human trafficking laws: court – 7 January 2010