Torture
in "Only" 2 of
22 UN Cases
Reviewed,
Australia
Takes AQ
Committee?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 4 --
Information
obtained by
torture is
used by the UN
Security
Council's
sanctions
regime, UN
expert Ben
Emmerson
charged on
Tuesday at a
partially open
event held at
the Germany
Mission to the
UN.
No,
Ombudsperson
Kimberly Prost
countered --
torture was
only
"plausibly
raised" in two
of the 22
cases she has
reviewed.
Then
the event went
off the
record, or
under the
Chatham House
Rules. Inner
City Press
left.
Back in the
summer, Inner
City Press
covered one of
the 22 cases,
the de-listing
of Sa'ad
Rashed
Mohammad
al-Faqih.
Germany
has
one more month
in charge of
the UN's
Taliban / Al
Qaeda
sanctions
committees.
Then it will
leave the
Council. Inner
City Press has
been
exclusively
informed that
new Council
member
Australia is
in line to
take over from
Germany.
The
torture and
wider due
process issues
have been
brewing for
some time. How
can the UN,
which preaches
rule of law,
put people on
sanctions
lists on
little
evidence, or
secret
evidence, or
evidence
obtained via
torture?
Emmerson
hammered
at this
points, adding
that if his
recommendations
were
implemented in
full, UN
sanctions
decisions
would be
bulletproof at
the European
Court of Human
Rights.
But how can he
be so
sure?
Ombudsperson
Prost, before
the session
went off the
record,
retorted that
even one of
Emmerson's
cases was
about nation's
citizens'
right to be
free from
terrorist
attack.
She countered
Emmerson on a
number of
points, and he
whispered in
the ear of
moderator Ivan
Simonovic. But
his reply
would be under
Chatham House
rules. The
reasoning
wasn't clear,
but Inner City
Press follows
the Rules: it
left, back to
the Security
Council, to
cover Yemen
and terror
attacks there.
Watch this
site.
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