Web pages about "Denmark"

Europe moves to protect trafficked people

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:40:36 +0000

Europe has taken a further step towards protecting people who have been trafficked with the entry into force of a new convention on Friday. The 14 states that have so far become parties to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings have committed themselves to ensuring greater respect and protection of the rights of trafficked persons.

Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International and La Strada International welcomed this major step for people trapped in a modern form of slavery, for which Amnesty International has been campaigning for years. The organizations called on the other 33 member states of the Council of Europe, as well as the European Union, to follow the others' lead.

Trafficked persons, when they come to the attention of the authorities, are rarely treated as victims of heinous crimes. Typically, they are treated as criminals, unlawful aliens or, in cases in which the authorities seek to pursue their trafficker, useful tools of the criminal justice system. The psychological, medical and social consequences of their ordeal and the underlying root causes are rarely addressed.

Assistance, when offered to trafficked people to recover from their ordeal, is frequently made conditional on their agreement to cooperate in prosecutions against their traffickers. Such cooperation often places trafficked persons and members of their families in further danger at the hands of the traffickers.

The parties to the Convention – Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Georgia, Malta, Moldova, Norway, Romania and Slovakia – have committed themselves to taking a different approach. They have agreed to take individual and collective action to criminalise trafficking as well as a range of other minimum steps necessary to respect and protect the rights of trafficked persons.

These steps include ensuring that:

a mechanism is in place for the accurate identification of trafficked persons;
persons reasonably believed to have been trafficked are granted time to recover and are offered assistance and protection—regardless of whether they agree to participate in any proceedings the authorities may decide to pursue against those responsible for their ordeal;
trafficked persons have access to redress, including compensation.

Video: Worldwide actions to close Guantánamo

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:28:43 +0000

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Thousands of people, including Amnesty International members and supporters from around the world, have taken action to mark the sixth anniversary of the first transfers of detainees to Guantánamo. Amnesty International staged protests in 30 countries on Friday, 11 January.

The world shouts 'Close Guantánamo'

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:55:25 +0000

Click on the pictures to the right to watch a slideshow with images of the day.

More than simply a call for closure, Amnesty International once again presented the US government with the organization’s framework for ending illegal detentions, whether at Guantánamo or elsewhere. This time, the framework was supported by over 1,200 parliamentarians from around the world.

In some countries, including Belgium and Ireland, some of the parliamentarians accompanied Amnesty International activists at their events and demonstrations.

The infamous orange jumpsuit – closely associated with the inhumanity and illegality of Guantánamo – became once more the icon of this anniversary. There was also street theatre, poetry readings, the recreation of Guantánamo cells in city centres, speeches, rallies and cyber activism.

US military chief wants to close Guantánamo

On Sunday, two days after the anniversary, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Navy Admiral Michael Mullen became the latest US official to say that Guantánamo should be shut down.

“More that anything else, I just think it has been the image – how Gitmo has become around the world, in terms of representing the United States. I believe from the standpoint of how it reflects on us that it’s been pretty damaging.”

What you can still do

Go to tearitdown.org and add your support to Amnesty International’s framework to end illegal US detentions.

Post a tearitdown banner in your website or blog.

World marks sixth anniversary of Guantánamo Bay

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:56:54 +0000

Amnesty International is leading worldwide events, rallies and meetings to mark the sixth anniversary of the first transfers of detainees to Guantánamo Bay. People around the world will be taking action to seek the immediate closure of the detention centre and an end to all illegal detentions.

Amnesty International events for the anniversary will showcase the recently declassified “Poems from Guantánamo” in countries including Bahrain, Luxembourg, Denmark and Spain. An Amnesty International activist in Bahrain described the poetry reading as “another step forward in our struggle to let the voices of the detainees reach the world... We hope that this anniversary is the last one and that Guantánamo Bay is closed forever.”

Over 1,200 parliamentary representatives from many countries around the world have signed a declaration calling to end illegal detention by the US government carried out in the name of counter-terrorism. Hundreds signed from parliaments across continental Europe, the UK, and Israel – countries that are the staunchest US allies in the “war on terror”.

Other key events include:
UK: In London, there will be an all-night vigil around a replica Guantánamo cage, filled every hour with a new ‘captive’. The morning after will see a mass demonstration in front of the US embassy in London. Hundreds of protestors in orange jumpsuits will sit in stress positions under the eyes of faux US guards. Rallies will also be held at the US Consulate in Edinburgh and through the streets of Belfast.

When: 10-11 January 2008
Time: Vigil begins 5.30pm local time, 10 January. Demo begins 10.30am local time, 11 January
Where: US embassy, 24 Grosvenor Square, London W1A 1AE

USA: In Washington DC, Amnesty International members and other activists will gather on the National Mall dressed in orange jumpsuits to urge Congress and the Bush administration to shut down Guantánamo. Approximately 100,000 signatures from US citizens and the declaration signed by over 1,200 parliamentarians will be sent to the Bush administration and Presidential candidates.

When: 11 January 2008
Time: 11.00am - 12:30pm local time
Where: National Mall, Washington DC

Sweden: Central Stockholm will host the ‘Guantánamo Bay Luxury Resort’, with activists in jumpsuits leaning back in deckchairs among palm trees, sun and cocktails. In conjunction with the stunt, three Swedish parliamentarians and Director of AI Sweden will give speeches to stress the continuing plight of detainees at Guantánamo Bay.

When: 11 January 2008
Time: 4pm local time
Where: Norrmalmstorg, square in Central Stockholm

Ireland: Towns across the country will find lone participants dressed in orange jumpsuits, white facemasks and placards. Each "statue" will aim to highlight the issue of solitary confinement, while identifying a specific individual in Guantánamo. Other AI members will collect signatures on a petition to be delivered to the US Ambassador. There will also be a poetry competition launched for secondary school students, asked to create poems using only the materials available to prisoners in Guantánamo: white sheets, toilet rolls, plastic cups, etc.

Time: 5-11 January 2008
Where: Towns across Ireland

Bahrain: A poetry reading night will feature former detainees Abdulla Al-Noaimi, released from Guantánamo in 2005 and key contributor to the book "Poems from Guantánamo". Poems by Jumah al-Dossari will also be read.

When: Sat 12 January 2008
Time: 7.30pm local time
Where: Bahrain Human Rights Society

Paraguay: Amnesty International activists will gather at a square in central Asunción and stage a street theatre re-enactment of Guantánamo, as well as collecting more signatures for petitions to close the detention centre and to stop torture and rendition worldwide.

The Philippines: Amnesty International will host a motorcade and street drama demonstration near the US embassy in Manila, also aiming to mobilize supporters from the AI Philippines membership and the United Against Torture Coalition (UATC).

More events are planned in many other countries.

Denmark: Authorities must come clean about renditions

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:24:28 +0000

European governments must initiate independent and thorough investigations into their involvement in the US-led programme of renditions and secret detention, Amnesty International said today.

“The public have a right to know if European airspace and airports were used to facilitate the transfer of people to places where they faced secret detention and torture”, said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

“Under international law, states that facilitate transfers to countries where they know or should know that there is a risk of serious human rights abuses are complicit in these abuses, and individuals complicit in abductions, torture or 'disappearances' should be held criminally responsible. Those who have been subject to rendition, disappeared and secretly detained must receive reparation."

The renewed call came in the wake of further allegations about the rendition and secret detention activities of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Europe. On 21 October 2007 the Danish newspaper Politiken reported that one of the planes known to have been used for CIA rendition flights was given permission to cross Danish airspace on 25 October 2003. It is suspected that this plane, which was on route from Washington to Jordan, picked up Yemeni national Muhammad Bashmilah from illegal detention in Jordan, and from there rendered him to secret US custody. According to the statement he later gave to Amnesty International, Muhammad Bashmilah was then held by the US in undisclosed locations for over a year and a half. He was kept in solitary confinement, frequently shackled and in handcuffs.

The Politiken article also contains information about the rendition in 1995 of an Egyptian man who had been recognized as a refugee in Denmark. Talat Fouad Qassem, also known as Abu Talal, was rendered by the CIA and Egyptian authorities from Croatia to Egypt in 1995. The Politiken article quotes former officials from the CIA and the US State Department who believe that, although Danish officials were not the source of their information about Abu Talal’s travel from Denmark to Croatia, the Danish national security service -- the PET -- would have been informed of his subsequent rendition.

The Politiken article quotes senior US officials who claim to have given their European partners information that came from interrogations of individuals detained in the rendition and secret detention programme. In particular it quotes a speech reportedly delivered in private in March 2007 by Michael Hayden, director of the CIA, to ambassadors of European Union (EU) member states in Washington in which he said:

“CIA detainees have been a key source for our understanding of al-Qa'ida in the past 5 years, and we have shared this knowledge with our European partners. Thousands of raw intelligence reports from CIA detainees have been passed to EU liaison partners and member countries. In addition, my Agency has provided hundreds of responses to the specific questions your services have posed to the detainees in our custody. Finally, CIA has passed you, our EU partners, hundreds of analytical assessments based, at least in part, on information provided by al-Qa'ida detainees."

“These statements raise the question of what the European intelligence services knew about the US renditions programme”, Nicola Duckworth said.

"European governments must disclose whether their intelligence agencies have asked questions through the CIA to prisoners in the rendition programme, as Michael Hayden claims."

Europe’s governments have repeatedly denied their complicity in the US programme of renditions. Nonetheless, evidence suggesting their involvement continues to emerge. As revealed by journalists, by Amnesty International’s report Partners in Crime, by the reports of other non-governmental organizations and by the reports of the inquiries of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, European airports and airspace have been used by CIA planes for flights that have repeatedly been linked to renditions. Agents of a few European countries have participated in the apprehension of people destined for rendition, or in the interrogation of such detainees once they have been transferred to countries where torture is known to be routine. European states may, as the reported remarks of Michael Hayden suggest, have received information resulting from the torture and other ill-treatment of individuals who had been subject to rendition and illegal detention, without asking where that information had come from, or under what circumstances it was obtained.

Allegations of European complicity in this programme have to date been met with silence from the decision-making bodies of the two most powerful European institutions -- the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, and the Council of the EU -- despite the good work done by bodies of both those institutions in exposing the involvement of European states in renditions and secret detention. A crucial step that could, and must, be taken by the Council of Europe, as Europe’s collective human rights body, is to establish a framework for the democratic oversight and accountability of national and foreign security and intelligence services, with the aim of ensuring that the actions they take to secure our safety fully respect human rights and the rule of law.

"Steps must be taken to ensure that the abductions, disappearances, secret detention and torture and other ill-treatment that have occurred in the course of the renditions programme, both outside and within Europe, are stopped, and are never repeated.”

Background
In a letter to the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners (TDIP), the Danish government reported over 100 flights through Danish airspace and 45 stopovers in Danish airports by planes allegedly used by the CIA, including those used for renditions. In April 2007 Amnesty International expressed concern, in a briefing to the UN Committee Against Torture, at the failure of the Danish authorities to initiate an independent investigation, in line with the recommendations of the TDIP, into this alleged use of Danish airspace and Danish airports during the renditions program.

In May 2007 representatives of the Danish government reportedly told the UN Committee against Torture that Denmark “had always been strongly opposed to any measures that violated the human rights of detained persons, including terrorists”, that Denmark “had a clear stance against the illegal transfer of detainees”, and that “it was not possible to confirm that illegal CIA activities had taken place in Danish airspace, on Danish soil, or that any Danish official had been involved in such activities”.

See also: Partners in Crime http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engeur010082006
Denmark: A Briefing for the Committee against Torture http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engeur180012007

Public Document
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For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web: http://www.amnesty.org

The secretive and illegal US programme of 'rendition'

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:36:54 +0000

"The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured. The United States does not use the airspace or the airports of any country for the purpose of transporting a detainee to a country where he or she will be tortured." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, December 5, 2005

"It never, never crossed my mind that I’d end up being hauled half way across the world by the Americans to face torture in a place I’d never been - Morocco." - Benyam Mohammed al Habashi, UK resident / Ethiopian national, who was arrested in Pakistan and is now detained in Guantánamo Bay.

Salah 'Ali Qaru finally emerged free from detention around midnight on 27 March. In nearly three years, the 27-year-old Yemeni was tortured in Jordan, flown from country to country, held for over a year in an unknown location and denied access to the outside world.

Salah 'Ali Qaru became one of probably hundreds of people caught up in the secretive and illegal US programme of "rendition". The CIA has used private aircraft operators and front companies to preserve the secrecy of their rendition flights, but nearly 1,000 flights have been identified as being directly linked to the CIA.

Salah 'Ali Qaru was then flown from his secret detention site to Yemen, where he was held for more than nine months without charge, before finally being charged with forging documents and released. He has never been charged with any terrorism-related offence.

His life has been destroyed. He has been traumatized by his ordeal. He has a two-year-old daughter he has never seen. His wife is destitute, living in Indonesia not knowing where he was for most of his detention. He doesn't know if he'll have the money or permission to return to his wife and child in Indonesia.

Salah Qaru's story and those of his country-men Muhammad Bashmilah and Muhammad al-Assad, who were also detained in the same secret facility, are just three of a handful of known cases. Potentially hundreds more remain completely secret. Renditions involve the transfer of people from one country to another in ways that bypass all judicial and administrative due process.