The highly critical report of the EU parliament into rendition flights which was published today includes an important recommendation which would extend the authority of oversight bodies to monitor the situation to prevent abuse of human rights in the future.
In 2004 when this issue first achieved major prominence the Celtic League urged the European anti-torture watchdog the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to act.
It soon became apparent however that the remit of the CPT restrained its actions.
Now the reports recommendations recognise this deficiency and urge action to rectify the situation to enable the CPT to carry out the type of scrutiny we called for at the time. The recommendation is set out below:
"Paragraph 216 . Takes the view that the CPT should be granted access without delay or obstruction to any place of detention within the European countries, including foreign military bases, and provided with all relevant information concerning such detention, and that, to this end, any bilateral agreements that restrict the access of the CPT should be revised;"
We trust that this recommendation together with others in the report are actioned as a matter of urgency by European governments.
The full EU report (English version pdf) can be found at:
(voir le site) 07-0020+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN
See also Celtic News;
No. 1623 'TORTURE FLIGHTS' ALLEGATIONS - LEAGUE CALL FOR PROBE - December 2004
No. 1624 CPT URGED TO ACT ON 'FORCED TRANSFER' ALLEGATIONS - December 2004
No. 1634 CPT TO SCRUTINISE IRISH AND SCOTTISH 'TORTURE FLIGHTS' - January 2005
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
14/02/07
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