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UUSC joins national campaign against torture


A statement of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture

Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions hold dear. It degrades everyone involved – policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished ideals. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable.

Torture and inhumane treatment have long been banned by U.S. treaty obligations, and are punishable by criminal statute. Recent developments, however, have created new uncertainties.  By reaffirming the ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment as well as torture, the McCain amendment, now signed into law, is a step in the right direction. Yet its implementation remains unclear.

The President's signing statement, which he issued when he signed the McCain Amendment into law, implies that the President does not believe he is bound by the amendment in his role as commander in chief. The possibility remains open that inhumane methods of interrogation will continue.

Furthermore, in a troubling development, for the first time in our nation's history, legislation has now been signed into law that effectively permits evidence obtained by torture to be used in a court of law. The military tribunals that are trying some terrorist suspects are now expressly permitted to consider information obtained under coercive interrogation techniques, including degrading and inhumane techniques and torture.
 
We urge Congress and the President to remove all ambiguities by prohibiting:

  • Exemptions from the human rights standards of international law for any arm of our government.

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  • The practice of extraordinary rendition, whereby suspects are apprehended and flown to countries that use torture as a means of interrogation.

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  • Any disconnection of "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" from the ban against "torture" so as to permit inhumane interrogation.

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  • The existence of secret U.S. prisons around the world.

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  • Any denial of Red Cross access to detainees held by our government overseas.

We also call for an independent investigation of the severe human rights abuses at U.S. installations like Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.
 
Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed? Let America abolish torture now -- without exceptions.

 Initial Endorsers
(Institutions listed for identification purposes only.)

Dr.Abdullahi Amhed An-Na'im, Emory Law School
Fr. William Byron, Loyola College in Maryland
Rev. Tony Campolo, Eastern Baptist University
Fr. John Chryssavgis, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
Rev. Richard Cizek, vice president, National Association of Evangelicals
Dr. Charlie Clements, President, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, Cambridge, MA
Rev.William Sloane Coffin, Jr., senior minister (ret.), Riverside Church (NYC)
Mrs. Randy Coffin, Stratford, VT
Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar, general secretary, National Council of the Churches of Christ;
Rabbi Amy Eilberg, Morei Derekh Training Program
Mohamed Elsanousi, Director, Community Outreach & Communications, Islamic Society of North America
Rabbi Edward Feld, Jewish Theological Seminary
Rabbi Marla J. Feldman, Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism
Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq, Upper Iowa University
Rev. Barbara G. Green, executive director, Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy
Rev. Dr. David Gushee, Union University
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Pax Christi
Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University
Jeanne E. Herrick-Stare, Esq., Friends Committee on National Legislation
Fr. David Hollenbach, SJ, director, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boston College
Rev. Kermit D. Johnson, Chaplain (Major General), U.S. Army (ret.)
Rev. Richard L. Killmer, program director, Churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy
Rev. Robert Moore, executive director, Coalition for Peace Action, Princeton, NJ
Mary Ellen O'Connell, Notre Dame Law School
Sr. Dianna Ortiz, director, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, International
Dr. Peter Paris, Princeton Theological Seminary
Rabbi Brant Rosen, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Hozan Alan Senauke, Buddhist Peace Fellowship
Rabbi David Saperstein, director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Rev. Dr. Glen Stassen, Fuller Theological Seminary
Rev. Dr. Peter A. Sulyok, Board Member, Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy
Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, secretary general, Islamic Society of North America
Rev. Dr. Ron Sider, president, Evangelicals for Social Action
Tarunjit Singh, secretary general, World Sikh Council
Kathryn Tanner, University of Chicago
Rev. John Thomas, president, United Church of Christ
Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator, Presbyterian Church (USA)
Joe Volk, executive secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation
Rabbi Brian Walt, executive director, Rabbis for Human Rights
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director, Shalom Institute
Rev. Jim Wallis, executive director, Sojourners
Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University
Coordinator: George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary


People of faith are encouraged to endorse this statement. You may do so online at www.nrcat.org. You may also write to the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, 40 Witherspoon St., Princeton, NJ 08542. The phone number is 609-924-5022.

The statement was adopted by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) during its founding conference at Princeton, NJ, January 13-15, 2006.

Those wishing to make a donation may do so online or by sending a check, made out to NRCAT/PAEF, to the National Religious Campaign against Torture. Donations are tax deductible. The Peace Action Education Fund (PAEF) based in Princeton, NJ is currently the 501(c)(3) tax exempt fiscal agent for NRCAT.