JBI Human Rights

Gaer Testifies Before Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Torture Prevention

JBI Director Felice Gaer was among five persons who testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the U.S. Congress on June 25 on preventing torture, an event covered in the Epoch Times June 30.  The Lantos Commission held the hearing for consideration of possibly more involvement of the Congress in the eradication of torture, which has been defined as a universal crime against humanity. The U.S. is party to the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), which is monitored by the  UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), where Gaer sits as one of ten independent experts. In opening the hearing, sponsor Congressman James McGovern (D-Massachusetts) said, “As a member of Congress and an American citizen, it is very painful for me that my government over the past few years condoned the use of torture in a cruel, degrading, and inhumane treatment of prisoners.”

“State obligations under the Convention against Torture require actions -- and ‘the obligation to prevent’ torture and ill-treatment engages the State in many ways,” Gaer stated in her testimony. She urged moving beyond the concept of outlawing torture to making global mechanisms in place work. The CAT has evolved with a certain measure of “candor and transparency,” noted Gaer in making an honest appraisal of how countries are meeting their obligations. She noted that importance of providing detailed information such as lists of prisoners and deaths in incarceration and providing prompt, impartial investigations into allegations of abuse, and stressed the role of adequate police training with clear-cut instructions on the prohibition of torture, as well as information on how to conduct forensics in cases of torture.

American-born Ursuline sister Dianna Ortiz, a nun who was tortured in Guatemala in 1989 and helped found the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, was among three victims who testified at the hearing, which was also covered by the Catholic News Service.

JBI Protests Death of Libyan Human Rights Defender and Democracy Advocate

On June 2, the JBI addressed a letter to the Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions of both the UN and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights regarding the death of Libyan human rights defender and democracy advocate Fati al-Jahmi on May 20. The JBI urged a prompt and thorough investigation by the government of Libya of the death in detention of Al-Jahmi, declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International for his interviews publicly calling for Libya’s democratization, including free elections, freedom of expression and of the media, and release of political prisoners. 

On May 3, Al-Jahmi, imprisoned in 2002, experienced a sudden deterioration of his health, fell into a coma, and was transferred to Jordan on May 5 for treatment, where he died. In March 2008, Al-Jahmi had told representatives from prominent human rights groups with whom he was allowed to meet that he was denied access to medical care for serious illnesses, including diabetes and coronary heart disease. At the time of the meeting, the visitors said he appeared frail and emaciated and could hardly speak or life his arm; his brother, Mohamed al-Jahmi who resides near Boston, reported the same.

The JBI called on the Libyan and Jordanian authorities to make public Al-Jahmi’s medical records from the Tripoli Medical Center where he was detained in the years prior to his death as well as the Medical Center in Amman. As Al-Jahmi had made repeated requests to the organization Physicians for Human Rights  to release the findings of an independent medical exam conducted by a PHR doctor in March 2008, and it is believed he would have wanted his medical records made public. Al-Jahmi’s immediate family members have faced intimidation from Libyan authorities and are not in a position to call for an investigation or a release of his medical records. Al-Jahmi’s case received widespread international attention, with some 17,000 people signing appeals on his behalf.