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SUMMARY STATEMENT The U.S. government, despite the clear obligation imposed by the Convention to take necessary domestic implementation actions, has not taken sufficient steps to enforce the Convention's provisions under domestic law. Most significantly, the government has delayed passing legislation implementing all of the requirements of CAT, with the most recent legislation incorporating Article 3 of CAT into domestic law having been adopted at the end of October, 1998, just a few days before this report went to press. The U.S. government has compounded this problem by attaching a declaration to its ratification of CAT that seeks to make its protections non-self-executing, i.e., stipulating that victims can not enforce CAT requirements through lawsuits filed in U.S. courts. It also is very disturbing that the Article 3 implementing legislation incorporates two additional restrictions to domestic enforcement of CAT that are inconsistent with the unequivocal treaty requirement of non-return to torture. These are to limit the availability of CAT's non-return prohibitions by excluding from protection aggravated felons, terrorists and security risks, and by removing the possibility of obtaining judicial review of denials of CAT claims by the INS for these same categories of individuals. These restrictions are inconsistent with CAT's unconditional prohibition against return to torture. With respect to CAT's requirement that acts of torture be made criminal offenses, under current U.S. law torture is punishable only when it is committed outside the U.S. (18 U.S.C. 2340A/a). Torture within the U.S. has not been criminalized. The government's basic rationale is that existing domestic laws, particularly criminal penalties dealing with offenses relating to physical assault, violence and murder, provide an adequate basis for the prosecution of acts meeting the definition of Article 1 of CAT. What this approach overlooks is the fact that the Convention: * covers a number of practices that may not fit within the terms of existing criminal law; * establishes certain obligations on the part of the U.S. government that may not be satisfied when enforcement is left in the hands and at the discretion of state and local authorities; and * requires domestic implementation specifically geared to the definitions and standards set out in CAT that acknowledges the special status and importance of torture violations. For example, as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights has pointed out, the New York City police officers involved in the extreme sexual brutalization of Mr. Abner Louima while in custody have been indicted for assault and aggravated sexual abuse under state law, but can not be subjected to more serious prosecution for violations of CAT without the adoption of federal criminal legislation covering these types of violations. There are many violations of the Torture Convention, such as threatening a person in custody that family members will be harmed, that are not covered by any applicable federal or state criminal law. One of primary objectives of international human rights treaties is to establish standards of conduct in each of the signatory nations that can be enforced domestically. In situations such as CAT, where special criminal responsibility is defined and established for actions that deserve particular recognition and treatment, this objective is not satisfied by relying on pre-existing laws that may deal with related violations, but do not define, acknowledge or prohibit offenses in the specific context of internationally condemned conduct. Special measures are required to affirm federal responsibility over the specific violations covered by the Convention, and to clarify that they require special status and treatment. Additional supportive actions are also needed to carry out U.S. obligations to provide for compensation and rehabilitation of torture victims, especially in view of the "non-self-executing" declaration the U.S. has attached to its ratification of CAT that seek to limit the ability of private victims to file suit based on CAT's provisions. At a minimum, specific legislation and implementing regulations must be adopted applying the special definitions and requirements of CAT to domestic conduct, assuring that state and local governments will comply with these standards, and providing for compensation and treatment of torture victims. Effective domestic implementation also requires the "non-self-executing" declaration to be removed, or to be declared null and void as contrary to the basic objectives and purposes of CAT. Articles Engineering Newsgroups Usenet Usenet Newsgroups Newsgroups Server Colocation Music Lyrics

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