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STORY: GENEVA / COUNTER-TERRORISM
TRT: 2.30
SOURCE: CH UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 05 MARCH 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, Human Rights Council’s ceiling
3. Med shot, Special Rapporteur sitting at the podium
4. Cutaway, US delegation
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Emmerson, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism:
"Many of the States involved, including of course the United States, have made strenuous efforts over the past decade to keep their involvement in the CIA programme of international crimes hidden from public scrutiny. But despite the care with which this wall of silence has been so painstakingly erected, it has not proved to be impenetrable."
6. Cutaway, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Emmerson, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism:
"But it stands to reason that it was difficult to win over ‘hearts and minds’ in the face of a steady stream of official Parliamentary inquiries, reliably sourced NGO reports, and court judgements that contain shocking details of the systematic violation of human dignity committed by the Bush-era CIA and its allies in the name of democracy."
8. Cutaway, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Emmerson, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism:
"The recent judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in 'El- Masri v Macedonia' is a good example. The court there found rendition, abduction, torture and incommunicado detention lasting for months, involving the detention of a gentleman who was subsequently found entirely innocent in Skopje, and was handed over to officials, who then beat him, stripped him naked, and anally penetrated him with an object, and then flew him to Afghanistan where he was detained and tortured in the CIA black site known as the ‘Salt Pit’ for over four months."
10. Cutaway, screen and podium at the Human Rights Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Emmerson, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism: "The case is steadily building for the adoption of a comprehensive strategy to secure public accountability for the past, and to bringing to justice those officials within the US, Europe, and elsewhere, that were complicit in this global network of crimes. The calls for the past to be confronted are fast approaching a critical mass."
12. Wide shot, Human Rights Council
Ben Emmerson, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, today demanded that Britain and the United States release classified documents regarding the CIA's human rights violations under former President George W. Bush, with hopes that the documents would lead to the prosecution of public officials.
Addressing delegates at the human Rights Council in Geneva, Emmerson said that many of the states involved, and he pointed out the United States (US), “have made strenuous efforts over the past decade to keep their involvement in the CIA programme of international crimes hidden from public scrutiny.”
But Emersons added, “despite the care with which this wall of silence has been so painstakingly erected, it has not proved to be impenetrable."
He asked the US to release the report on the CIA's secret detention and interrogation programme by the US Senate's select committee on intelligence, and also for the UK to release the interim findings of a report by a retired judge, Sir Peter Gibson, on the involvement of MI5 and MI6 in the removal and mistreatment of terrorist suspects.
Emersons said that, “it stands to reason that it was difficult to win over ‘hearts and minds’ in the face of a steady stream of official Parliamentary inquiries, reliably sourced NGO reports, and court judgments that contain shocking details of the systematic violation of human dignity committed by the Bush-era CIA and its allies in the name of democracy."
Britain and the US have come under increasing pressure as details emerge of the so-called secret rendition programme, in which terrorism suspects, some who were innocent, were arrested and flown to either secret CIA prisons or detention centres operated by other countries where many complained of torture and other mistreatment.
Emerson said that the recent judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in 'El- Masri v Macedonia' was a good example. He said that “the court there found rendition, abduction, torture and ‘incommunicado’ detention lasting for months, involving the detention of a gentleman who was subsequently found entirely innocent in Skopje, and was handed over to officials, who then beat him, stripped him naked, and anally penetrated him with an object, and then flew him to Afghanistan, where he was detained and tortured in the CIA black site known as the ‘Salt Pit’ for over four months."
Emerson concluded by saying that a case was “steadily building for the adoption of a comprehensive strategy to secure public accountability for the past, and to bringing to justice those officials within the US, Europe and elsewhere, that were complicit in this global network of crimes.”
