Mrs May owes it to torture survivors to set up an inquiry - Sonya Sceats in The Times

Sonya Sceats, our CEO, was recently featured in The Times' Thunderer column. In the column, Sonya calls upon Theresa May to fulfil her promise on a decision regarding an independent, judge-led inquiry into British complicity in torture.

This column was originally published in The Times, on 28 August 2018.

British complicity in torture has been deplorable, on that point there can be no disagreement. The prime minister has apologised for the “appalling” treatment of one man rendered to torture with help from MI6, but she appears reluctant to allow the British people to know the full extent of such abuses and how politicians colluded in them.

After the publication of two devastating reports by the intelligence and security committee the government promised, within two months, a decision on the independent, judge-led inquiry that the former cabinet ministers Kenneth Clarke, David Davis, Andrew Mitchell and many others have called for. Those two months are now up. And yet Theresa May still seems to be hesitating, many will think in thrall to the intelligence agencies that have fought hard to suppress the truth.

[May] appears reluctant to allow the British people to know the full extent of such abuses and how politicians colluded in them.

This decision can be seen as one of the great moral tests of May’s premiership. Is she ready to perpetuate the cover-up? If yes, then what does that tell us about the sincerity of her commitment to the global torture ban?

The intelligence and security committee, under the MP Dominic Grieve, made clear that its findings, powerful though they were, were not enough. The committee was denied access to the spies involved and lacked the powers to compel their evidence. A newly announced public consultation on guidance designed to prevent torture complicity is welcome, but until we know precisely what went wrong in the past we cannot be sure about how best to guard against recurrence.

This is doubly important in the era of a US president who proclaims that torture “absolutely works”, thus giving a green light to torturers worldwide. This is more than bluster: recently declassified US cables relating to torture allegedly overseen by Gina Haspel, President Trump’s CIA director, boast of the practice as “tenderising a fine steak”.

At Freedom from Torture we help survivors to rehabilitate from torture and rebuild their lives in the safety of the UK. Our work reflects a British abhorrence of torture that dates back hundreds of years. In the postwar period Britain played a leading role in shaping international efforts to prevent torture.

This is doubly important in the era of a US president who proclaims that torture “absolutely works”, thus giving a green light to torturers worldwide.

With the world waiting to see what Britain will stand for in the future, Theresa May can and should ensure that we regain this leadership. We owe that to the survivors, not only those tortured with the involvement of UK personnel, but also those tortured in other circumstances who look to Britain as what the prime minister herself has called “a beacon of hope”.

The original article can be accessed here.