Statement Against the Torture in Iraq
Human rights – suspended rights?
The combination of gross humiliation and violence that we have been witnessing these last weeks – the torture in the prisons of Iraq, military actions against civilians in Iraq and the demolishing of lives and homes in Gaza, represent severe and destructive attacks on human rights and human dignity. They represent serious blows to a number of rights that we want to consider as agreed upon, internationally accepted and protected rights.
The fact that these events are systematic and intended, and planned in the centers of power, aggravate the situation and lead us to suspect that we are looking at rights at risk. And the brutality goes on despite the fact that the perpetrators know that internationally accepted conventions and treaties are being violated. We cannot accept such a disrespect and arrogance that is communicated by these brutal events. As health workers working in the context of human rights abuse we feel that our most important platform, namely the international respect for human rights and human dignity is being threatened. This is a question both of law and justice as well as of human lives, hope and future.
The bitterness and disillusion, the wounds and damages that are inflicted upon not only those who are suffering the direct violence, but also on those who are observing this at a distance, may take years to repair, and more violence may result. In our work with all those whose health and rights are being violated, our common hope has been to assure people that neglecting rights is wrong, and that there is an international will to fight the wrong and support those who suffer.
We must not let this basic platform be shattered – we must not allow that rights are being suspended – there is no cause that can legitimate the use of torture. The international efforts against terror and violence must not develop into a new legitimization of more violence and more terror. The respect for human rights, the respect for the many efforts to create a common system of respect, must not be destroyed by power arrogance and disrespect.
Oslo 21.5.04
Nora Sveaass
