Lawyers' convention set to criticize Bush on interrogations order Michael Roston

Published: Wednesday August 8, 2007





Print This Email This The American Bar Association will gather its membership for an annual national convention next week. One topic on the agenda will be President George W. Bush's July 20 executive order on interrogations and torture, which the body may criticize in a proposed resolution. "The resolution concludes that the Executive order is 'inconsistent with US obligations under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions,'" said Michael Posner, the President of Human Rights First, a nonprofit organization that was formerly known as the Lawyers' Committee on Human Rights. Posner suggested that the resolution was likely to pass. "This resolution will be debated and voted on by the House of Delegates next Monday or Tuesday at the ABAs annual meeting in San Francisco," the human rights attorney said. "It is noteworthy that the resolution has been endorsed by the ABAs Standing Committee on Law and National Security, which has been supportive of many of the Administrations post-9/11 policies and actions and traditionally has favored broad executive authority on matters of national security." The rebuke of Bush's executive order by the top national organization for attorneys comes in an indirect manner. The resolution calls on Congress to pass legislation that supersedes the July 20 executive order. It also calls on Congress to ensure that wherever detainees are held by US government agencies, including the CIA, they are protected under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Common Article 3 guarantees basic rights of humane treatment for individuals caught up in armed conflict, regardless of their status. In a report accompanying the proposed ABA resolution, the president of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York described why corrective action was needed. "The actions urged by these recommendations are necessary to protect American troops who may be detained by other nations that would be disinclined to honor their treaty commitments in light of the U.S. governments failure to honor its own," stated Barry W. Kamins. "Furthermore, these actions are necessary to re-establish the nations credibility in asserting the rights of people everywhere. The worlds most powerful nation must exercise its power while demonstrating its respect for the rule of law." Kamins added, "The American Bar Association must go on record as supporting adherence to the rule of law as a fundamental principle, for, when the rule of law is subjugated to a claim of 'necessity', all who claim its benefits are less secure." Various human rights groups, including Human Rights First, strongly criticized Bush's executive order on torture on interrogations at the time it was announced. The full resolution can be downloaded at this link. The report from Kamins can be downloaded at this link.



