9 July 2009, Berlin

Fight against Terrorism and Human Rights

Berlin
9 July 2009, 12:00 am

Gerald Staberock, International Commission of Jurists
Lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
Dr. Georgios Sotiriades, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
Moderation: Christian Bommerius, Berliner Zeitung (requested)

On 2nd July 2009, the final report of the "BND-Untersuchungsausschuss" containing 3500 pages shall be debated in the German Bundestag. The first comments by the parties on the matters investigated  such as the mission of BND-agents in the war on Iraq, as well as the Khaled El Masir and Murat Kurnaz kidnapping and torture cases will be available. The ECCHR will publish a shadow report on the paper of the special committee in July which deals not only with the mentioned important individual cases. Rather, problems relevant in the post-Bush era will also bedisputed.. In particular, the legality of the interrogation of suspected terrorists abroad by German staff of the intelligence service, and the use of information gained abroad, especially in cases of suspicion of torture, will be analyzed legally.

The event takes place with the support of the International Commission of Jurists (CJ) which presented in spring 2009 the path breaking study on comparative law with the title "Assessing Damage, Urging Action" (see: http://ejp.icj.org/IMG/EJP-Report.pdf). This study is based on a three-years-long investigation on terrorism legislation and practice involved in the fight against terrorism. Hearings have taken place under the direction of prominently staffed commissions of jurists in Europe, North and East Africa, North and Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australia. The ICJ concluded, among other things, that  practices currently used in the  fight against terrorism threaten  principles of international law throughout the world, and that in some western states an erosion of these principles could be observed.

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