On Thursday, Steven Watt from the ACLU's Human Rights Program will participate in a roundtable discussion on diplomatic assurances against torture at Columbia Law School in New York City. Join us! The discussion is open to the public:
When: Thursday, February 10, 4:20 - 6:20 pm
Where: Columbia Law School, 435 W 116th Street, Jerome Greene Hall Room 103
Diplomatic assurances are promises between countries that persons transferred from one county to another will not be tortured in the destination country. Our government relies on these assurances to return noncitizens to countries with well-documented records of torture. The government's position is, notwithstanding such a record, because of the assurance, the person will be safe. Unfortunately, these assurances — which are akin to handshakes between countries — are inherently unenforceable. Indeed, in many instances we have to take our government's word that they even exist, because the State Department insists that these "assurances" are kept secret.
