Local Opportunities to Promote Executive Accountability for Torture

Model Legislation on Executive Accountability for Torture

This ordinance aims to promote executive accountability for human rights abuses, such as torture.

It offers an opportunity for municipalities and states to call on the federal government to pursue transparency and accountability through an independent commission and prosecution of all government officials complicit in degrading treatment.

The ordinance also provides an option for local authorities to investigate federal officials complicit in torture by authorizing local prosecutors to assert universal jurisdiction under well-established principles of international law.

Kurt Daims, Coordinator for Torture Prosecution under Universal Jurisdiction, is available to assist with your local efforts to pass this ordinance.

For more information, or to share of your interest so that we can most effectively support your efforts and inform and inspire others, please email Grassroots Campaign Coordinator Emma Roderick.

Resources

Advocacy Opportunities

• Reject human experimentation: Demand accountability: Across the history of the medical profession, no maxim has been more important than that to "do no harm." A recent report by Physicians for Human Rights has revealed that, beyond merely participating in torture-which has long been decried throughout the medical profession, as well as by interfaith leaders from across the spectrum of faiths-psychologists and other medical professionals working with government officials also engaged in human experimentation. Please stand with us to defend the rule of law today, by adding your voice to our letter to the attorney general.
• Disbar the torture lawyers: While the attorney general contemplates a limited investigation scapegoating junior officials who violated "approved" torture techniques, BORDC and allies (including the National Lawyers Guild and Velvet Revolution) are pursuing ethics complaints against former senior officials.  Letters will soon be available for each state in which torture lawyers face formal complaints.
• Demand a complete investigation of torture: Sign on to support a complete and thorough investigation of all government officials allegedly complicit in torture, and prosecution wherever the evidence merits. Add your name to our general letter or a letter addressing the unique perspective of a particular profession: legal professionals, educators, health professionals, or clergy and religious lay-leaders.

Organizing Resources

• Talking points on torture accountability (También está disponible en español)
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Toolkit for organizing locally
• Model ordinance on torture accountability
• Legislation introduced in the North Carolina House of Representatives, crafted by NC Stop Torture Now, to authorize a commission to criminalize torture and rendition; this type legislation is an excellent option for activists in communities unwilling to consider stronger remedies for torture.
• Legislation to criminalize torture at the local level
• Protests in Minneapolis, MN offer an excellent model for how to respond when an official complicit in torture has a speaking engagement in your area.

Commentary and Analysis

• Torture and Human Rights: A Guide (Unitarian Universalist Service Committee)
• "Government Fights To Thwart New Torture Photo Scandal" by Heather Marlowe, People's Campaign for the Constitution Blog, October 14, 2009
• "Losing Wars We Already Won (Part I): Torture vs. WWII" by Shahid Buttar, Huffington Post, August 26, 2009
• "Torturing the Rule of Law" by Shahid Buttar, Huffington Post, July 1, 2009

Multimedia

• Tortured Law, a 10-minute documentary by Alliance for Justice about the government lawyers who authorized torture
• Torturing Democracy, a 90-minute documentary, produced by Washington Media Associates and the National Security Archive, about America's torture policies