Interstate Cooperation in Violations of International Human Rights Law: The Case of Extraordinary Rendition
Necdet Umut OrcanFollowing the 9/11 attacks, the United States, specifically the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), implemented a Rendition, Detention and Interrogation Programme, which involved capturing, unlawfully detaining, and interrogating individuals suspected of involvement in the War on Terror. The United States could not carry out these extraordinary renditions and interrogations alone. The Programme required the use of other countries’ territories for the unlawful rendition and interrogation of persons, as it could not be carried out within the United States legal system, which provides effective procedural safeguards for the apprehension, detention and interrogation of individuals. Cooperation with other states was necessary during the rendition and interrogation stages. Although the international community was aware of the unlawful procedures involved in the Programme from the beginning, at least 54 states, ranging from those considered to have been ‘advanced’ in terms of democracy and human rights to those with problematic records in this regard, cooperated with the CIA. This study investigates the reasons for cooperation between states in the practice of extraordinary rendition. It finds that the perception of national security as a priority over human rights is the main driver of such cooperation. The purpose of this study is to examine the practice of extraordinary rendition and assess it under human rights law. Then, after listing the states that cooperated with the CIA, it attempts to answer the question of why cooperation might have existed.
Olağan Dışı Teslim Örneğiyle Uluslararası İnsan Hakları Hukuku İhlallerinde Devletlerarası İş Birliği
Necdet Umut Orcan11 Eylül saldırıları sonrası Amerika Birleşik Devletleri ve özellikle Merkezi İstihbarat Teşkilatı (CIA), teröre karşı savaş bağlamında şüpheli görülen kişilerin yakalanması, hukuka aykırı olarak başka ülkelere kaçırılması ve kötü muamele içeren usullerle sorgulanmasını içeren bir Teslim, Tutma ve Sorgulama Programı (ing. “Rendition, Detention and Interrogation”) yürütmüştür. Ancak bu olağan dışı teslim ve sorgulamalar, doğaları gereği, yalnızca Birleşik Devletlerin tek taraflı girişimleriyle gerçekleştirilebilecek nitelikte değildir: Programın, kişilerin yakalanması, tutulması ve sorgulanması aşamaları için önemli usuli güvenceler içeren Birleşik Devletler hukuk sisteminde gerçekleştirilmesi mümkün olmadığından, özellikle kişilerin hukuka aykırı transferi ve sorgulama aşamalarında başka devletlerin topraklarının kullanılması gerekmiştir. Bu nedenle teslim ve sorgu işlemlerinde diğer devletlerin iş birliğine gerek duyulmuştur. Öyle görünüyor ki Program’ın içerdiği hukuka aykırı usuller neredeyse ilk aşamalardan itibaren tüm uluslararası kamuoyu tarafından bilinir olsa da demokrasi ve insan hakları açılarından gelişmiş addedilen devletlerden bu açıdan sorunlu devletlere kadar geniş bir yelpazede en az elli dört devlet CIA ile iş birliği yapmaktan çekinmemiştir. Bu çalışma bu iş birliğinin nedenlerini araştırmakta, bu nedeni iş birliği yapan devletler arasındaki ulusal güvenliğin insan haklarına üstün kılınma algısında bulmaktadır. Bu amaçla çalışmanın ilk bölümünde olağan dışı teslim uygulaması ve bu uygulamanın insan hakları hukuku açısından değerlendirilmesine yer verilmiş, ikinci bölümde ise iş birliğinde bulunan devletler anıldıktan sonra iş birliğinde neden bulunulmuş olabileceği sorusu cevaplanmaya çalışılmıştır.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the United States carried out a “Rendition, Detention and Interrogation Programme”, which involved the capture, unlawful detention, and interrogation of persons suspected of involvement in the War on Terror. It is accepted by government officials and legal experts close to the administration that, İn the context of the “global war on terror”, the United States has resorted to many practices whose compliance with international law is highly controversial. At the heart of these practices has been the extraordinary rendition programme, which some trace back to the Clinton administration and others to the capture of the Lebanese hijacker Fawaz Younis in international waters during the Reagan administration. Regardless of when it began, scholars have agreed that it gained both momentum and diversity under George W. Bush administration. The Rendition, Detention, Interrogation Programme, of which extraordinary rendition is a significant part, was officially terminated by President Barack Obama in an executive order issued on January 22, 2009.
The practice of extraordinary rendition has different manifestations and definitions. Because it is not possible to discuss each of these definitions in this study and because it is the first definition adopted by an international court, the definition adopted by the European Court of Human Rights in the United Kingdom Intelligence and Security Committee is taken as the basis. According to this definition and as used in this study, extraordinary rendition is “the unlawful transfer of persons from one jurisdiction or state to another, where there is a real risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, for the purpose of detention and interrogation outside the ordinary legal system”.
Although the programme officially ended in 2009, it continues to be a subject of ongoing scrutiny under international human rights law. One reason for this is that the effects of the Programme are still felt nearly 15 years after its official termination. The Guantanamo Bay detention centre, which has “housed” 779 detainees since 2002, a significant number of whom were subjected to the Programme, has not yet been evacuated. Moreover, numerous developments in the international political arena regarding the programme remain. For example, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism repeatedly referred to the practice of extraordinary rendition in his 2023 report on Guantanamo Bay detainees. International human rights organisations continue to mobilize international public opinion on this issue. Most importantly, the programme’s journey before international judicial and quasi-judicial bodies is far from complete. As of January 16, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that six different rights had been violated (and some rights in more than one respect) in a case brought by one of the victims of the Programme. Also on September 12, 2023, a shadow report on Guantanamo detainees was submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
It is clear that the extraordinary rendition Programme, by its very nature, leads to human rights violations on many fronts. Furthermore, by nature, this programme requires cooperation between States. It is interesting that more than 50 states, some of which have very good human rights records, were partners in that programme. This study focuses on the reasons for this cooperation and aims to provide a theoretical description of the actions that facilitate or complicate joint violations of international human rights law.
The first part of this study examines the practice of extraordinary rendition in terms of its main stages and explains why it is contrary to international law, particularly human rights law. The programme, inter alia, violates the prohibition of torture, the right to liberty and security, the right to a fair trial, the right to a family life and the right to an effective remedy. The second part discusses why states might have participated in such a Programme. With this focus, the first section of the second part first maps cooperation and shows, on the basis of official data, which states have contributed to the Programme and what measures they have taken. This shows that states with excellent to very poor human rights records participated in the Programme. It then examines why different states have engaged in this cooperation. This section first presents the main factors that have been proposed to explain why states cooperate in general and then considers their possible manifestations in the practice of extraordinary rendition.
None of the international relations theories of cooperation can fully explain the interstate cooperation in this programme. This paper argues that the fact that the extraordinary rendition programme entails gross violations of human rights provides a new dynamic to cooperation and that states participating in the extraordinary rendition programme have a greater tendency to trade off human rights for national security interests. Indeed, a comparison of states that participated in the rendition programme with those that did not shows that their votes on human rights issues in the UN General Assembly overlap significantly with those of the United States.