European Parliament Resolution on CIA renditions: Positive step after two years
(Brussels, 19 February 2009) Amnesty International welcomes the news that two long years after the European Parliament’s report on European complicity in illegal CIA renditions, the Parliament today is going to adopt a follow-up resolution on this crucial issue.
Despite the delay, it remains as important as ever that the Parliament signals its determination to hold EU member states accountable for their complicity in grave human rights violations committed in the name of the ‘war on terror’. Furthermore given current discussions on helping the US close Guantanamo, the EU ought to be even more concerned with links between this and the renditions which led to eventual transfers of people to Guantanamo.
The new US administration’s commitment to change US policies to conform to international human rights law, the ongoing and new inquiries in some member states, as well as the new reports adding evidence to EU member state complicity indeed provide ample ground for the Parliament to continue the work it engaged in two years ago.
Amnesty International calls on the European Parliament to make clear that it will continue to seek truth and justice for as long as it takes.
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