Rally with us as we present petitions to Illinois senators Dick Durbin and Peter Fitzgerald demanding the United States recognize recent iraqi prisoner abuses as systemic torture and calling on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign.

Rally for Human Rights in Iraq!

When: Thursday May 20 * 4 pm
Where: Federal Plaza - (Adams & Dearborn)
Who: University of Chicago students and human rights supporters.


PLEASE CIRCULATE AND SIGN THIS PETITION!!!
We will be presenting these petitions to our representatives Thursday May 20th at 4 pm.

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WHEREAS, the documented mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners held in Abu Ghraib prison is in gross violation of the Geneva Conventions and offends the basic human dignity and rights afforded to all human individuals, and

WHEREAS, accounts of the abuse reveal that the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners occurred on a systemic level, involving complicity of officers and ranking officials in the military and intelligence departments, and were not isolated incidences of inappropriate action on the part of singular individual guards, and

WHEREAS, the incidences of abuse have been acknowledged to have been conducted for the purpose of interrogation and information-gathering, and thereby comprise a policy developed in conjunction with the goals of the occupying force,

We the undersigned condemn the abuses of the United States Armed Forces and call for the following actions:


1. We demand that the Administration and other branches of the United States Government acknowledged the abuses and maltreatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib as systemic cases of “torture,” as defined by the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (“Convention Against Torture”) and other internationally recognized legal documents;

2. We demand that the United States, as a signatory, abide by the Geneva Conventions and similar standards set forth by international treaties, conventions, and covenants at all of its detention facilities and in all cases of future detention of foreign personnel;

3. We demand that, in addition to all acts of torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners ceasing, that those who are being wrongfully held are released immediately from all detention facilities and reunite them with their proper community;

4. We demand that government officials and military officers responsible for oversight of the detention practices be held fully accountable for these human rights violations and disclose all relevant information to subsequent investigations into these incidences of torture. Intrinsic to accountability is the stipulation that all complicit in these are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

5. We demand the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for the mishandling and neglect in his duties of overseeing the conditions of Abu Ghraib and the occupation of Iraq.