Human Rights Watch writes to Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Rt Hon David Miliband, on the consequences of the UK and Ethiopian governments signing the Memorandum of Understanding which would do little to curb acts of torture in Ethiopia.

Murat Gasayev, an ethnic Chechen accused of participation in an attack on government buildings in Ingushetia in June 2004, was released by Russian authorities without charge on August 28, 2009, after 10 months in pretrial detention.

This submission highlights a number of key areas of concern regarding Italy’s compliance with its international human rights obligations. They concern counter-terrorism policies that violate the absolute prohibition on returns to risk of torture and ill-treatment; abusive interceptions of boat migrants and their summary expulsion to Libya in violation of the right to seek asylum and non-refoulement; and racism and violence against migrants and Roma.

Italy’s expulsion of a Tunisian terrorism suspect to a country where he is at real risk of torture is the latest example of how it flouts the absolute ban on such returns. Italy returned Ali Ben Sassi Toumi to Tunisia on August 2, 2009, despite repeated rulings from the European Court of Human Rights to suspend the planned expulsion until the court fully investigates the claim that he would face torture or other mistreatment upon his return.

I am writing to express Human Rights Watch's profound concern at the German government's intention to endorse formally the use of diplomatic assurances in the regulations governing the Residence Act.

The US Defense Department’s claim that a former Guantanamo detainee is a “recidivist” to terrorism appears to be based on a confession obtained by Russian authorities through torture. According to media reports, an unreleased Pentagon study has concluded that about one in seven of the 534 detainees who have been transferred from the Guantanamo Bay detention center returned to terrorism or militant activity.

In his first 100 days in office, President Barack Obama has made significant progress in reforming the Bush administration’s abusive counterterrorism policies, but his administration has also made a few serious missteps.