UN Special Rapporteur Questions Health Policies in Australia

By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

CANBERRA, Australia – An UN Special Rapporteur on health expressed concern over the health of asylum seekers detained at Australia’s Christmas Island facility and recommended that it be closed.

According to Anand Grover, Christmas Island should be shut down because its remote location prevents the detention center from receiving health services that are equal to the rest of the community.

Despite the fact that the health situation has improved, the UN official believes that mandatory detention with no maximum limits on duration of stay as well as the non-existence of binding legal standards for services tend to have a negative effect on the health of the asylum seekers.

Mr. Grover believes that mandatory detention should be abolished.  By keeping the asylum seekers in mandatory detention, the government is wasting money because ultimately most of them will be granted visas.

Further, in regard to infectious diseases and detention of all asylum seekers, the Special Rapporteur stated that “you have to look at the individualized risk of a person” rather than detaining everyone.

He believes that Australia has continued to use Christmas Island because it’s a “historic thing”.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans responded by rejecting the UN’s recommendation to close the facility.

His office further stated that “Asylum seekers on Christmas Island receive legal advice and assistance, access to independent review of unfavourable decisions, and external scrutiny by the Immigration Ombudsman . . . The government’s key immigration detention values . . . were intended to maintain strong border security but also treat people with human dignity.”

The UN Special Rapporteur also expressed concern over the health of Australia’s indigenous population and that their right to health is being violated.

Australia has failed to incorporate international human rights standards into domestic law.

He stated that health conditions amongst aboriginal communities are in some respects worse than in third world countries.  In particular, Mr. Grover noted the “extent of preventable disease, a lack of basic services and poor access to primary health care.”

Due to many years of neglect, racism, and discrimination, the Australian Aboriginals have been disempowered and lack access to basic services, such as safe drinking water, sanitation, and access to education.

For more information please see:
ABC News – UN envoy wants detention centre closed – 04 December 2009

ABC Radio Australia – UN rapporteur urges Australia to close detention facility – 04 December 2009

China view – Aboriginals on the margins of the Australian society: UN Rapporteur – 04 December 2009

Radio Australia News – UN health expert critical of Australian policies – 04 December 2009

U.S. Immigration Agency Denies Basic Rights

04 December 2009

U.S. Immigration Agency Denies Basic Rights

By Brenda Lopez Romero
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Human Rights Watch report reviewed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency practices and determined that the detention and transfer of non-citizens in the immigration detention system denied basic rights to non-citizens. It also concluded that both legal and unauthorized non-citizens are held unnecessarily. The report illustrated that some detainees from Philadelphia and Los Angeles are being transferred to Texas or Louisiana.

The information in the report was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) of Syracuse University. Alison Parker, director for the U.S. Human Rights Watch chapter, said “ICE is increasingly subjecting detainees to a chaotic game of musical chairs, and it’s a game with dire consequences.” The transfers seem to have at least some purpose as data indicate that the Federal Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas) is receiving the most transfers and it is also the jurisdiction that is most adverse to the non-citizen rights, has the lowest numbers of immigration lawyers, and has the most conservative judges.

In a separate investigation, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security found that the transfers of detainees are haphazard, detainees are not offered notice of their charges, and are not being released even when they was been granted bond. The Inspector reported that these inappropriate transfers result in lack of access to legal counsel and evidence, add time to the detention, and cause “errors, delays and confusion for detainees, their families, legal representatives,” and the immigration courts. Moreover, the Inspector found that since 2003, detentions have more than doubled to over 442,000 people a year.

Immdetain2(PHOTO: Courtesy of the Washington Independent – Detention Center in Texas)

The Constitution Project, a bipartisan group, also called for broad changes in the immigration law to include access to appointed counsel particularly for unaccompanied minors. This move would add more constitutional safeguards similar to the criminal justice system, significantly reducing the burden of proof, and allow permanent legal residents to file a waiver of mandatory detention. Mr. Asa Hutchinson, Chair of the Constitution Project, defended the recommendation, because none “made should in any way compromise national security … It simply allows for a more humane and more efficient system.”

For more information, please see:

The Chronicle – Agency, advocates assail ICE on detainee transfers – 3 December 2009

The New York Times – Immigration Detention System Lapses Detailed – 3 December 2009

The Washington Independent – Immigrant Detention Doubles Since 1999 – 2 December 2009

Illness Postpones Nazi War Crimes Trial

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MUNICH, Germany – The trial of a former Nazi prison guard who has been charged with the murders of thousands of Jews at a Polish camp was postponed on Wednesday because of a medical infection.

The judge of the Munich Court determined that the 89-year old John Demjanjuk was not medically capable to attend the court proceedings.  Demjanjuk had attended the first few days of hearings, albeit in a hospital bed.  Because of a worsening infection, however, prison doctors advised against transporting him to the courtroom.  The trial has been scheduled to resume Dec. 21.

During the first few days of the trial, Demjanjuk did not say anything.  While there he was either in a hospital bed or wheelchair.  He has maintained his denial in playing any role in the killings at the Sobibordeath camp in Poland in 1943.  Demjanjuk claims that during that time he was a Soviet prisoner of war in a German camp.

Originally born in Ukraine, Demjanjuk was a soldier in the Russian army before being captured by Nazis.  He then worked as a prison camp guard.  After the war, he was able to emigrate to the United States.  In 1986 the United States deported him to Israel and subsequently sentenced to death in 1988.  His conviction was overturned, however, by the Israeli Supreme Court.

In 2002 the U.S. Department of Justice revoked his citizenship for lying when he first arrived in the country about his past as a Nazi.  Until he was extradited in May from the United States he had been living in Ohio.  Following his extradition to Germany, he was formally charged with 27,900 counts of being accessory to murder.

For more information, please see:

AP – Demjanuk trial day canceled due to illness – 2 December 2009

JTA – Illness forces Demjanjuk trial postponement – 2 December 2009

NEW YORK TIMES – Germany: Demjanjuk Trial Delayed – 2 December 2009

REUTERS – German court cancels third day of Demjanjuk trial – 2 December 2009

RTT NEWS – Demjanjuk’s War Crimes Trial Postponed Due To Illness – 2 December 2009

November Death Toll Lowest Since Beginning of Iraq War

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The civilian death toll in Iraq dropped to its lowest level in November since the beginning the US-led invasion in 2003. At least eighty eight Iraqi civilians were killed during the month according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official. This is the first month in which less than one hundred civilians were killed since the beginning of the conflict. Overall one hundred and twenty two Iraqis died in November. Twenty two police officers and twelve soldiers died in addition to the civilians who were killed.

The November total is a noticeable drop from October’s death toll in which a total of four hundred and ten individuals were killed throughout Iraq. A large number of these deaths came during a twin suicide bombing near government offices in Baghdad in which one hundred fifty people were killed. The previous lowest monthly death was in May 2009, when one hundred fifty five people were killed. Among those were one hundred twenty four civilians.

The current monthly totals for casualties in Iraq pale in comparison to those of 2006 and 2007. The period was marked by rampant sectarian violence. In January 2007 alone two thousand Iraqi people were killed.

The low death toll number comes at a time where senior Iraqi and United States officials predict a possible increase in violence leading up to the country’s parliamentary election. The top US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, predicted last month that politically motivated violence would be used to undermine the Iraqi government and security forces prior to the election. General Odierno recently said, “we still have a small group of extremist elements that will do anything and everything to undermine Iraq’s progress and the people’s confidence in the government in Iraq.”

While the reports of the decreased death toll pleased senior Iraqi officials, they emphasized that the numbers still could be improved upon. Ali Mussawi, an advisor to Iraqi Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki commented that, “we’re delighted with the decrease in the number of victims of terrorism, but we will only be happy when we eliminate all threats.” Mussawi also called on civilians and security forces to “remain vigilant because the enemy is waiting.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – Iraq Monthly Death Toll Lowest Since US Invasion – 1 December 2009

CNN – Iraq’s Civilian Death Toll in November is Lowest Since War Began – 1 December 2009

Associated Press – Iraq Reports Drop in Civilian Deaths in November – 30 November 2009

Reuters – Iraqi Civilian Deaths Drop to Lowest Level of War – 30 November 2009

United Nations Representative Says PNG Police Need More Power

By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea – The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Michael Nowak, says that Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) police need new powers to deal with the violence in the country.

Nowak has been meeting representatives from the Pacific in PNG about implementing international standards on torture in the region. He has been invited to spend two weeks in PNG in May of 2010 to assess the ill-treatment of prisoners.

Nowak says that the problems are not just “internal” to the police.

He stated: “Now I’m not only talking about torture by the police, you can also talk about violence, inter-tribal warfare in the highlands for instance. The police have a very very difficult task of mediating, or you have quite a high level of domestic violence where the police might have other kinds of powers in order to deal with it.”

Christina Saunders, a human rights advisor to the United Nations PNG country team, says that according to a UN study, most of the constitutions of the Pacific countries include some kind of prohibition on torture, but the key to enforcing those prohibitions on torture requires strengthening “accountability and supervision” of police and correction officers to ensure they follow the law.

She stated: “As often is the case, even when governments have very good laws in place and they train, unless there are strong accountability mechanisms in place and oversight to ensure that those laws are implemented, unfortunately you can’t eradicate torture.”

The goal of the recent PNG meeting is to monitor “political will, which will affirm that torture and ill-treatment is morally and legally wrong.”

In response to the meeting, Saunders stated: “We’re also hoping that this meeting will encourage members of the region to ratify the convention against torture, and also the optional protocol, which will give a stronger legal framework for the action which is required to eradicate torture in the region.”

For more information, please see:
Islands Business – UN torture representative says PNG police need new powers – 03 December 2009

Pacific Islands News Association – UN torture representative says PNG police need new powers – 03 December 2009

Australia Network News – UN torture representative says PNG police need new powers – 02 December 2009