Ministers will have to resign if Shannon assurances are untrue, Gilmore tells Council of Europe

national | anti-war / imperialism | press release Tuesday January 24, 2006 12:09 by cf - Labour

The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly ruled that “diplomatic assurances” do not provide sufficient protection against the risk of torture
The Irish Government has not carried out any inspections of aircraft or flights using Shannon, despite being asked to do so by the Irish Human Rights Commission

Shannon Airport in Ireland has been listed as one of the airports which may have been frequently used for the illegal transport of detainees. I wish to specifically address this point.

Shannon Airport has been used by the United States for the movement of troops to and from Iraq. Last year, the number of US troops moving through Shannon doubled to 300,000.

The Irish Labour Party has challenged this use of Shannon, which is a normal civilian airport. We have also questioned if Shannon has been used to transport detainees to camps such as Guantanamo. Even before the initial reports from Human Rights Watch the Labour Party had raised in the Irish Parliament (Dail Eireann) the possibility that Shannon may have been used for the transfer of detainees for torture or ill-treatment.

The Irish Government has consistently responded to our concerns by repeating diplomatic assurances which have been given by the United States. Responding specifically to the allegations which are the subject of Mr Marty’s report, our Foreign Minister stated in the Dail (December 14):

“the United States has given Ireland repeated, clear and explicit assurances that no prisoners have transferred through Irish airports…These assurances were confirmed by Secretary Rice, at a meeting on December 1st” and that the Government had accepted the assurances “in good faith.”

I regret to say that the Irish Government has not carried out any inspections of aircraft or flights using Shannon, despite being asked to do so by the Irish Human Rights Commission.

It is not sufficient to accept “diplomatic assurances” about such possible abuses of human rights and such possible major breaches of international conventions on human rights and torture.

The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly ruled that “diplomatic assurances” do not provide sufficient protection against the risk of torture (Chabal v UK, 1996; Agiza v Sweden, 2005).

The UN Special Rapporteur says “diplomatic assurances are unreliable and ineffective in the protection against torture and ill-treatment” (August 2005).

The Council of Europe High Commissioner for Human Rights says: “The weakness inherent in the practice of diplomatic assurances lies in the fact that where there is a need for such assurances, there is clearly an acknowledged risk of torture and ill-treatment” (July 2004).

Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights imposes a positive obligation on member states to protect persons against torture and ill treatment, which can not be satisfied by the acceptance of unverified diplomatic assurances.

Senator Marty, and anybody else investigating these allegations, will have considerable difficulty getting to the truth, if member states do not carry out thorough independent inspections and enquiries. Relying on the assurances of countries, whose own secret service agencies may be involved, is simply not good enough.

In our democracies there has to be political accountability. If it turns out that the assurances which have been given to date are not accurate; that detainees have been tortured and ill-treated; then those Government Ministers who accepted the assurances without carrying out inspections or independently investigating them should be obliged to resign from office.

The possibility that there may be secret detention centres in Europe and that there may be systematic transportation of detainees for torture brings echoes from some of the darkest days in Europe’s history. Our purpose here in the Council of Europe is to uphold Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law. That is why we must all now work to ensure that our individual countries fully co-operate with Senator Marty’s investigation.