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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 26, 2003

Statement by the President
United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Today, on the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the United States declares its strong solidarity with torture victims across the world.  Torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere.  We are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law.

Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right.  The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, ratified by the United States and more than 130 other countries since 1984, forbids governments from deliberately inflicting severe physical or mental pain or suffering on those within their custody or control.  Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit.  Beating, burning, rape, and electric shock are some of the grisly tools such regimes use to terrorize their own citizens.  These despicable crimes cannot be tolerated by a world committed to justice.

Notorious human rights abusers, including, among others, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Zimbabwe, have long sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world by staging elaborate deceptions and denying access to international human rights monitors.  Until recently, Saddam Hussein used similar means to hide the crimes of his regime.  With Iraq’s liberation, the world is only now learning the enormity of the dictator’s three decades of victimization of the Iraqi people.  Across the country, evidence of Baathist atrocities is mounting, including scores of mass graves containing the remains of thousands of men, women, and children and torture chambers hidden inside palaces and ministries.  The most compelling evidence of all lies in the stories told by torture survivors, who are recounting a vast array of sadistic acts perpetrated against the innocent.  Their testimony reminds us of their great courage in outlasting one of history’s most brutal regimes, and it reminds us that similar cruelties are taking place behind the closed doors of other prison states.

The United States is committed to the world-wide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example.  I call on all governments to join with the United States and the community of law-abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating, and prosecuting all acts of torture and in undertaking to prevent other cruel and unusual punishment.  I call on all nations to speak out against torture in all its forms and to make ending torture an essential part of their diplomacy.  I further urge governments to join America and others in supporting torture victims’ treatment centers, contributing to the UN Fund for the Victims of Torture, and supporting the efforts of non-governmental organizations to end torture and assist its victims.

No people, no matter where they reside, should have to live in fear of their own government.  Nowhere should the midnight knock foreshadow a nightmare of state-commissioned crime.  The suffering of torture victims must end, and the United States calls on all governments to assume this great mission.