The 226-page document to be presented to the Human Rights Council in March 2010 is a legal critique of the Bush administration's "extraordinary rendition" policy and CIA secret detention centers which came into the public eye after the Council of Europe published a report in 2006 claiming that the CIA had kidnapped an estimated 100 people since the events in New York on 11 September 2001. However, of the report claims that secret detention in connection with counter-terrorism policies exists on a "global-scale", and that "if resorted to in a widespread and systematic manner, secret detention might reach the threshold of a crime against humanity."

Ghost prisoners

Human rights organizations have been documenting information about the so called 'global war on terror' for nearly a decade - the experts concluded that "the state of emergency, international wars and fights against terrorism ... constitute an enabling environment". In this context, Alkarama has worked on 13 cases (concerning 53 individuals) which are referred to in the report, documenting secret detention both by the US and Arab Governments. In fact, Alkarama submitted information to the UN experts related to the practice of secret detention in the Arab world. The following cases were included in the report and are cases which Alkarama continues to follow:

Egypt
1. "Zeitoun Terror Cell" - (16 individuals) Egypt

Iraq
2. 11 individuals relating to the case of Mohamed Al Dainy - Iraq

Jordan
3. Issam Mohamed Tahar Al Barquaoui Al Uteibi - Jordan

Libya
4. Hatem Al Fathi Al Marghani - Libya
5. Mohamed Hassan Aboussedra - Libya
6. Aissa Hamoudi - Libya (Algerian-Swiss National)

Saudi Arabia
7. Saud Mukhtar Al Hashimi and 8 others - (9 individuals) Saudi Arabia

Syria
8. Eight Qamishli cases - (8 individuals) Syria

Yemen
9. Salah Ahmed al Salami - Yemeni detainee in Guantanamo
10. Amine Mohammad Al Bakry - Yemeni Citizen in Afghanistan
11. Abdeljalil Al Hattar - Yemen

Other
12. Mr Mustafa Setmariam Nassar - Spanish/ Syrian citizen
13. Abou Elkassim Britel - Italian/ Moroccan

Guantanamo closure and international norms

Many of the victims rendered from the Middle East from 2001-onwards, reappeared at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. In the mid-2000s the passage from secret detention to Guantanamo for "reprocessing" was considered a precautionary tactic in support of the war on terror - now it is recognized as being tantamount to abduction. While the experts' report encouraged President Obama's renouncement of the Bush administration's policies, suggesting the closure of CIA "black sites" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantanamo has yet to be closed as was promised by President Obama soon after his inauguration. Close to 200 prisoners still remain imprisoned in the midst of an international legal predicament.

The experts also welcomed another policy recently implemented by the US administration in August 2009 whereby the ICRC is to be informed within two weeks of the capture of a prisoner, but adding that "there is no legal justification for this two-week period of secret detention". They go on to say that the "victims of secret detention should be provided with judicial remedies and reparation in accordance with the relevant international norms." Victims human rights are ignored at the judicial level, while intelligence agencies, particularly in Arab states are left to continue illegal activities with impunity. The report states that "in almost no recent cases have there been any judicial investigations into allegations of secret detention."

The report is entitled "Joint study on global practices in relation to secret detention in the context of countering terrorism" and is available on the UN Human Rights Council's website

For general information about the secret detention report, in a UN press release

For more information on how others are working on the issue of secret detention, you may wish to see the following press release from Amnesty International