New York Bar Association Releases Statement on Torture

The New York Bar Association, in a statement, said current U.S. regulations enacted under the Convention Against Torture prohibit deporting any individual to a country where “more likely than not” the person will be tortured. A person can be deported only after a finding that torture is no longer likely. By contrast, the bar association said, the new bill would actually “mandate deportation of such an individual to a country even if it is certain that [he] would be tortured there.” The provision amounts to “a tacit approval of torture,” the New York Bar Association said, and “is particularly shocking in the aftermath of the recent revelations of torture by U.S. personnel in Iraq.”

Newsweek
October 6, 2004