This Resolution requires that Mayor Emmanuel and the Chicago City Council stand firm against all forms of torture and inhumane treatment. It requests that Chicago officials publically declare their support for survivors of torture and hold all perpetrators of torture accountable.

The Resolution further requires that Mayor Emmanuel and the City Council of the City of Chicago affirm that all prisoners under city, state or federal government control, both domestically and internationally, must have their human rights respected, including the right to be free from torture.

The Illinois Coalition Against Torture formed in December 2009 to oppose torture in the City of Chicago, throughout the State of Illinois, and by the U.S government.

Speakers at the press conference and/or the hearing included U.S. Congressman Danny Davis; Alderman Joe Moore; Attorney Flint Taylor; University of Chicago Professor Adam Green; DePaul University Professor of Law Cherif Bassiouni; Debra Erenberg, Midwest Regional Director of Amnesty International; Mary Lynn Everson, Kovler Center; Sister Benita Coffey; and Mario Venegas, Chilean survivor of torture. Mary L. Johnson, whose son was tortured by Police Commander Jon Burge, delivered impassioned testimony. A group of Black and Latina mothers held pictures of their sons who Burge or his officers had tortured to visibly rebuke the City of Chicago for allowing their loved ones to be tortured.

Melinda Power, a member of ICAT, presented petitions supporting the resolution that over 3,500 people from Chicago, across the United States, and Latin America and Europe had signed.

The resolution was approved by the Committee on Human Relations and the City Council vote is on Wednesday, January 18.

Here are links to press coverage of the hearing:

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/01/12/aldermen-discuss-making-chicago-a-torture-free-zone/

http://inthesetimes.com/ittlist/entry/12529/chicago_city_council_holds_anti-torture_hearings/

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=198382

After the vote, it will be up to us to make sure that the City Council and the City of Chicago follow through on the resolution!  We really hope that other cities follow suit and we will help you in any way we can to do so!

Thank you all!

http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2012-01-10/chicago-could-become-first-city-us-oppose-all-forms-torture-95428

We’ve also created a Facebook event for those who want to come out for the press conference and hearing this Thursday at City Hall starting at 9:00 a.m.

http://www.facebook.com/events/126866080766049/

When: Thursday January 12, 2012. Press Conference: 9:00 a.m.; Hearing: 10:00 a.m.

Where: Chicago City Hall, 2nd Floor.

Contact: Margaret Power at 773-209-0524

On January 12, 2012, the Chicago City Council will hold a hearing on a Resolution to oppose torture in Chicago, in prisons throughout Illinois, and around the world.

Alderman Joe Moore of the 49^th ward introduced this resolution in November 2011.  The Illinois Coalition Against Torture has collected over 3,500 signatures from Chicago, across the U.S., and around the world in support of this Resolution.  When the resolution passes, Chicago will be the first city in the United States to officially oppose all forms of torture.

This Resolution requires that Mayor Emmanuel and the Chicago City Council stand firm against all forms of torture and inhumane treatment.  It requests that Chicago officials publically declare their support for survivors of torture and hold all perpetrators of torture accountable.

The Resolution requires that Mayor Emmanuel and the City Council of the City of Chicago affirm that all prisoners under city, state or federal government control, both domestically and internationally, must have their human rights respected, including the right to be free from torture.

Speakers at the Press Conference and Hearing include:

 U.S. Congressperson Danny Davis; Alderman Joe Moore; Sr. Benita Coffey, representing the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT); Debra Erenberg, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Midwest; Mary Lynn Everson, Marjorie Kovler Center; Attorney Len Goodman; Mary L. Johnson, mother of a Burge torture victim and inmate at Tamms Correctional Center; Laurie Jo Reynolds, Tamms Year Ten; Attorney Flint Taylor; Mario Venegas, Chilean survivor of torture under Pinochet.

The Illinois Coalition Against Torture formed in December 2009 to oppose torture in the City of Chicago, throughout the State of Illinois, and by the U.S government.

The resolution comes on the heels of the 2010 conviction and sentencing of Police Commander Jon Burge, who was found guilty for perjury and obstruction of justice because he falsely denied having tortured prisoners.  Burge is currently serving a sentence of 4 1/2 years in federal prison.

ICAT formed in response to the spate of torture allegations coming to the fore from Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, state prisons in Illinois, and, of course, Chicago.  ICAT’s mission is to educate the public and to build opposition to the U.S. government’s use of torture on all levels at home and abroad.

Since late August 2011 ICAT has gathered signatures on a petition to support the anti-torture resolution.  To date, over 3,000 people from Chicago, across the United States, and around the world have signed the petition.

This resolution is an important first step in making it clear that the people of Chicago will not tolerate the practice of torture. ICAT calls on the City Council to adopt the resolution making Chicago a torture-free zone and to ensure that the resolution is put into practice by all the residents of Chicago.

http://signon.org/sign/city-of-chicago-resolution?source=s.em.cr&r_by=510219&mailing_id=1401

To date, we have collected 1,031 signatures online and 1,507 signatures on the hard copy of the petition. A big Thank You to all of you who have gotten signatures or sent out the online petition far and wide. It has been great! We just received a page of signatures from the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, so a special thank you to them. If you have signed copies of the petition, please send them to ICAT (Illinois Coalition against Torture) at 2502 West Division St., Chicago, Il., 60622 right away, because we want to turn them all in on Thursday. Or you could bring them to the press conference and hearing this Thursday.

Thank you very much.

ICAT formed in the summer of 2010 to bring together various groups and individuals who consider torture immoral and illegal and want it to end.  The coalition works to end U.S. government torture on all levels:  from the local, to the state, to the international.  In terms of Chicago, ICAT joined with many other committees to condemn the Chicago police’s use of torture on prisoners, most especially against Black men.  The coalition held several well attended educational programs and demonstrations to build public awareness that police Commander Jon Burge and men under his command commonly tortured roughly 110 Black men and one Black woman in order to extract “confessions” from them from the 1970s through 1991.  These confessions were then used by the city to convict these people, despite the fact that a large number of them had not committed the crime for which they were being charged.  In June 2010 Jon Burge was convicted of perjury and sentenced to four and one half years in prison.  The conviction of Burge on perjury charges stemmed from the fact that he had previously lied under oath when asked if he had committed torture.

The resolution also calls for an end to torture throughout Illinois, specifically in the state prison system.  In June 2011, Amnesty International, the respected global organization that works to end torture and inhuman treatment and the release of political prisoners, recently condemned the use of solitary confinement in the case of three prisoners held in Angola Prison, Louisiana.  Many Illinois state prisons routinely consign prisoners to solitary confinement, which means that they are locked in their cells for twenty three to twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, deprived of contact with other human beings and lacking mental or physical stimuli.  The result is not rehabilitation, which is no longer the goal, but the mental, emotional, and physical deterioration of the inmate.

The third level of torture that both the resolution and ICAT oppose is that practiced by the U.S. government in its so-called “war against terrorism.”  Former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney supported the use of torture against those they considered potential or actual threats to the United States.  In the name of defending national security, both men gave the green light to U.S. military and intelligence forces to torture people.  As has been well documented, U.S. forces in Guantánamo, and elsewhere, tortured captured individuals under their control, subjecting them to treatment that violates international law.  Although President Obama promised during his presidential campaign to shut Guantánamo down, it remains open.

In order to promote the resolution, ICAT has circulated a petition online as well as a hard copy one.  To date, more than 2,000 people have signed the online petition (see http://signon.org/sign/city-of-chicago-resolution) and or a hard copy.  ICAT plans to continue to gather signatures until the day the City Council votes on the resolution.  At this point, the vote is expected to take place in early December 2011.

We have two pieces of good news to share. First, 659 people have signed the online petition and 520 have signed hard copies of it. That means that 1,179 people have signed the petition. That has happened because many of you have spread the word, asked people to sign it, and gotten the petitions around. Thanks to each and everyone of you, together we have surpassed the 1,000 mark. Now we need to aim for the 2,000 mark.

And the second piece of good news is that we now have a final copy of the resolution, which is posted below. Members of the Illinois Coalition against Torture (ICAT) have been meeting with Alderman Joe Moore to make sure we have the correct wording and demands in the resolution. In the process, we have worked with Alderman Moore to come up with a resolution that retains our demands and can pass the City Council.

He will introduce the resolution in City Council on November 2nd, so we have our work cut out for us during this month. We need to redouble our efforts to get signatures and garner support to ensure its passage. Realistically, it will not be easy to get the City Council to pass the resolution. We need to make sure the aldermen know that a large number of people in Chicago, throughout the United States, and around the world support the resolution. So, please keep getting people to sign the petition.

Please sign on to the petition at:

http://signon.org/sign/city-of-chicago-resolution?source=s.em.cr&r_by=510219&mailing_id=726

If you want to help us circulate the petition, you can also download a PDF file of the petition by clicking on the link below.

ICAT_Petition

RESOLUTION PROCLAIMING CHICAGO TO BE A TORTURE FREE ZONE

WHEREAS, the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention) defines torture as: “Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”; and

WHEREAS, the United States signed the Convention in 1988 and the United States Congress ratified the Convention in 1994, thereby making it a law; and

WHEREAS, torture violates our nation’s and our city’s most cherished ideals and violates the rights of all individuals, in contravention of the Convention and provisions of the United States Constitution, including the Fifth Amendment ban on self-incrimination, the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law; and

WHEREAS, incidents of torture and degrading practices perpetrated by agents of or on behalf of the United States government have been documented in Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere abroad since the signing of the Convention; and

WHEREAS, many Chicagoans are being held in prolonged solitary confinement in Illinois prisons in conditions which often lead to physical and psychological breakdown and are a form of torture; and

WHEREAS, former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and Chicago police officers under his command tortured scores of African-American men, which resulted in false confessions leading to wrongful convictions and imprisonment; and

WHEREAS, the City of Chicago and its taxpayers have paid and continue to pay millions of dollars to defend lawsuits arising from those torturous acts; and

WHEREAS, torture survivors require comprehensive care and assistance, such as that provided by the Heartland Alliance Marjorie Kovler Center; and

WHEREAS, torture degrades everyone involved—perpetrators, survivors of torture, their families and communities, and officials and the public which turn a blind eye to such practices; and

WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Chicago in 2002 declared June 26th a day of support for torture survivors in accordance with the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Chicago stand firm against all forms of torture and inhuman treatment, and hereby proclaim Chicago to be a torture free zone; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Chicago voice their strong and unwavering support for all survivors of torture, and will hold all perpetrators accountable for their actions; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Chicago support and will take all necessary steps to enact the following: 1. The City of Chicago declares that it will not tolerate, support or allow torture to be practiced by its employees or residents. 2. The City of Chicago affirms that all prisoners under city, state or federal governmental control are entitled to have their human rights respected, including their right to be free from torture. 3. The City of Chicago supports the observance of December 10th, International Human Rights Day, as a day to reaffirm that the human rights of all people must be respected and to publicly denounce the practice of torture, wherever it occurs.