Speech of Mr. Mohamad SAFA Secretary General of the
khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture
On June 26th - The UN International day in Support for the Victims of Torture
(Click here to read it in Arabic)
Allow me first, to greet all of you in the name of the Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture for your kind presence amongst us in the Festival of Justice. This event is organized by the KRC in collaboration with the civil society institutions & organizations within the frame of activities of the campaign launched by the IRCT in commemoration of June 26th, the UN International day in Support for the Victims of Torture.
On the dawn of June 26th, 2006, torture is still broadly exercised in hundred of countries. Many democratic countries are allowing progressively torture breaching by such acts the Convention Against Torture and the Declaration of the Human Rights.
Under the umbrella of the War Against Terrorism, all type of torture and serious breaches of Human rights are practiced. This alarming phenomenon requires a substantial and categorical change in the programs and activities of the Human rights organizations and the International movement against torture. The establishment of the UN Human Rights Council as a substituting organ of the Human Right Commission is a considerable step. This shy action must be supported by many other planned measures and processes in order to restitute to the international movement against torture its credibility and life.
After the WW1 and WW2, the Declaration of the Human Rights saw the light on December 10th, 1948. Would the atrocities of the war against terrorism patterned by the USA after September 11th, be a motivation to reconsider the Declaration of the Human Rights, amend the Convention against torture and fill the gaps of Roma system of the IPC and all the other International conventions relevant to Human rights?
Yes! The Human Rights Council shall constitute a big workshop and a start of a new era for a World without torture.
For a world where guiltiness must be sanctioned, we must put an end for the abused interpretation of Human Rights according to which killing the family of the child Hoda GHALIYA on Gaza shores, and bombarding civil Palestinians are legal rights bestowed to Israeli, and dispel the preconceived notions about a New Democratic Middle east for the sake of which Gantanamo prisoners are deprived from their human rights, Iraqi detainees are feed for 17 days water and bread and incarcerate in undersized prisons, Mohditha massacre is perpetrated and the secret prisons in Europe operating.
Therefore, I urge Mr. Kofi ANNAN -Secretary General of the UN- and the High Commissioner of the Human Rights Ms. Louise ARBOUR, as well as all the organizations active against torture and for Human rights e.g. Amnesty International, ICRC, IRCT, OMCT, FIDH, APT and all other Arab and international organizations to call for an international conference on Human Rights in order to fix a plan against the horrendous breaching of Human Rights and preserve the achievements of the Human Rights Movement and tribute the sacrifices of martyrs, detainees and missing persons.
In Lebanon, and despite the ratification of Al TAEF convention in 1990 and the National Dialogue in 2006, successive Lebanese Governments and Parliaments did not toil to find out bona fide solutions for the war sorrows and sequels. Many causes are still pending unsolved. For instance, the cause of the Lebanese detainees or missing persons in Israeli prisons was never treated as it should and corpses of the martyrs were not returned even 6 years after liberation. The cause of missing persons in Syrian prisons was not formally treated. The causes of the persons lost during war, or collective cemeteries or invalid liberated detainees were never considered. Which adds insult to injury is that the Lebanese Parliament enacted amnesty laws for all those who committed atrocities albeit the sufferance of the families of lost or missing persons.
The Government was just with the criminals and unjust with the victims.
Dear attendance and fellow colleagues,
The key of the civil peace in any country is to find real solutions for the dreadful breaches of the Human Rights.
Thereupon, Khiam Rehabilitation Center demands the following:
1) Establish a Justice and fairness commission. Entrust the same the mission to inspect and investigate in all the murders and assassination and torture crimes as from 1975 until the assassination of late PM Rafic Hariri and so on.
2) Reconsider recently enacted Amnesty laws since the same are illegal and tyrannical for all the families of the lost and missing persons and considering that these laws are a material violation of the Convention against torture which calls to sanction all criminals.
3) Open the file of Lebanese prisons and forbid torture there. Allow to human organization and civil society institutions to visit these prisons.
4) Organize an international movement in order to liberate the detainees in Israeli prisons.
5) Endeavor seriously to unveil the destiny of the lost or missing persons in the Syrian prisons and liberate the same. Establish an international commission to investigate in all coercive missing crimes in Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Libya.
6) Provide health, social, psychological and pedagogic support for the families of the lost and the detainees and for all the victims of torture. Draw up social programs in order to cure the pains of the families and the victims such as indemnity or rehabilitation or reinsertion
7) Invite the civil society institutions to actively work in order to uphold and sustain the civil peace and fight political and religious secterianism and its destructive effects on the country and the national unity.
8) Approve the civil, social and human rights of Palestinians.
9) Investigate in all the discriminative practices against Syrian employees after the assassination of late PM HARIRI and sanction their perpetrators. Unveil the destiny of the lost and missing Syrians in Lebanon.
In this occasion, we urge the Lebanese Parliament and Government to ratify the protocol of the UN convention against torture (a new mechanism to prevent torture) that shall become enforceable on July 22nd, 2006 as well as the annexed protocols of the Civil and politic rights. We also demand that Lebanon adhere to Roma system of the IPC and to submit reports for the various UN commissions.
On June 26th, we raise high our voices against torture and say NO for the torture of Palestinians, YES for the liberation of all Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons.
On June 26th, we condemn the atrocity of torture in American prisons in Iraq and we demand to close Gantanamo and Paghram prisons.
On June 26th, we demand to stop all political arrests and prohibition of freedoms and liberties in Arab countries and to liberate all the opinion prisoners from Arab prisons.
On June 26th, let us remember all the victims of torture and detention and coercive missing in the entire world, and call all Governments to double efforts in order to provide health, social and psychological assistance for the victims of torture and their families.
We tribute the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of torture for its 25th anniversary and the IRCT and all the other institutions and organizations active against torture and supporting torture victims.
Together against torture
Together against torture
26/06/2006
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