OMCT submits amicus curiae brief to US Supreme Court in rendition law suit
The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), jointlywith the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Redress Trust andInterrights submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in a leading rendition case.
The case concerns a civil law suit brought byvictims of the secret detention and extraordinary rendition program against JeppesenDataplan, an airplane company implicated in the rendition circuit, and follows adecision of the Court of Appeals that had dismissed the case from being heardfor reasons of state secrecy.
The amicus curiae addresses the obligationsunder international human rights law on the right to an effective remedy and reparationsfor torture, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations. It showsthat secrecy must not have the purpose or effect to prevent accountability forserious human rights violations or crimes under international law, and that tothe extent that there are legitimate secrecy claims these can and need to beaccommodated without extinguishing the right to an effective remedy.
The amicus brief is joined by leadinginternational lawyers Mr Dick Marty, Swiss member of parliament who served as Rapporteurof the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe inquiry on AllegedSecret Detentions and Unlawful Inter-State Transfers of Detainees involvingCouncil of Europe Member States, Professor Manfred Nowak, former UN SpecialRapporteur on Torture (2004-2010), Professor Robert Goldman, former UNIndependent Expert on Terrorism and Human Rights and Professor Stefan Trechsel,Judge ad litem at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia(ICTY).