Regional and Global Perspectives on Impunity for CIA Torture: The Right to Remedies and Reparation

Last December, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (“SSCI”) released a summary of its Study of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program, which included significant new information relating to the commission of serious crimes, including torture, homicide, and sexual assault. In light of the disclosure of this information, new calls for accountability have been made by domestic and international human rights groups, U.S. allies, and international human rights bodies, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

The U.S. government has so far ignored calls to open a new comprehensive criminal investigation and thus far no public apology or compensation have been provided to victims of the CIA torture program, many of whom have been determined by the SSCI report to have been “wrongfully detained.”

On October 23, 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will be holding a hearing on the “human rights situation of persons affected by the U.S. Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation Program.” The hearing will focus on the right to remedies and reparations for survivors of the CIA torture program.

In advance of the Inter-American Commission hearing, a coalition of human rights groups from the U.S. and Latin American will be holding a public event to address the need for transparency and accountability for the CIA torture and secret detention program. The event can be livestreamed here; additional details are in the flyer below.

Watch the hearing here:

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Related Resources:

• Request for IACHR Hearing on the Right to Remedies and Reparations for Victims and Survivors of CIA Torture Program

• IACHR Hearing: Introduction

• IACHR Hearing: Oral Submission - Introduction

• IACHR Hearing: Oral Submission - Criminal and Civil Accountability for Victims and Survivors of the CIA Torture Program

• IACHR Hearing: Testimony of Juan Mendez, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture

• IACHR Hearing: Oral Submissions – Recommendations

• IACHR Hearing: Reparation and Apology – State Responses to Secret Detention and Torture

• IACHR Hearing: Translation of Audio Testimony by Mr. Mohamed al Shuraeiya Ben Soud

• Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School: Denial of Justice - The United States’ Failure to Prosecute Senior Officials for Torture