Counter Terror with Justice

In 2008, government practices in the context of counter terrorism – resulting in illegal detention, torture and other ill-treatment and impunity – continued to undermine the human rights framework.

At the end of 2008, the USA continued to hold detainees unlawfully at Guantánamo and elsewhere, despite rulings in the US Supreme Court recognising the right of detainees to challenge the lawfulness of their detention.

Hundreds remained victims of enforced disappearance in Pakistan. Counter-terrorism legislation in countries as diverse as the United Kingdom, Swaziland and Tunisia continued to result in serious human rights violations.

In Poland, the public prosecutor’s office initiated an investigation into the long-standing allegations that the CIA operated a secret detention centre in the country, although accountability for the human rights violations carried out under the US Central Intelligence Agency’s secret detention programme, across Europe and elsewhere, remained largely absent.

In 2008, Amnesty International’s Counter Terror with Justice campaign was supported by thousands of people from all over the world, who sent appeals and joined demonstrations, as well as by more than 1,200 parliamentarians from 30 countries, former US president Jimmy Carter and former Irish President Mary Robinson.

Amnesty International organised worldwide days of action to mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on 26 June, and the anniversary of the first transfers to Guantánamo on 11 January.

In November, Amnesty International launched its 100 days campaign, asking President-elect Barack Obama to take 17 concrete steps towards putting human rights at the centre of his administration’s approach to counter terrorism.