On Monday 29 June, two days before the start of the Luxembourg presidency of the EU Council, a delegation from ACAT handed in to Mr Jean Olinger, Political Affairs Director at the Foreign Ministry, its petition entitled ‘Time to take torture seriously’ (French title: ‘On ne badine pas avec la torture’), with 11,557 signatures, asking him to forward them to Luxembourg's Minister for Foreign and European Affairs, Jean Asselborn.

This action, intended as an alarm signal to Europe, was launched on 1 May by ACAT Luxembourg, in cooperation with the ACAT International Federation and a number of European ACATs and with the support of Amnesty International Luxembourg. The campaign reached its climax on 26 June with a solidarity vigil, held to mark the International Day in Support of Torture Victims at Villa Pauly, the Gestapo headquarters in Luxembourg during the war.

Through this petition, ACAT is appealing to the EU Council, under Luxembourg’s presidency, to give efforts to promote human dignity, and particularly the fight against torture, the absolute priority they deserve. ACAT is deeply worried that, in view of the current security concerns raised by from terrorist threats, human rights and fundamental freedoms may be relegated to a secondary position. The revelations of recent years regarding the complicity of many European countries in the CIA’s interrogation and torture operations have shown the dangers that await our countries in this area.

The petition calls on the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU to make every possible effort to ensure that Europe sets an example in the fight against torture, and to bring all the EU’s influence to bear on other countries around the world in order to ensure that they comply with the prohibition of torture. It also calls on the EU Council to provide effective support for programmes for the prevention of torture and the rehabilititation of torture victims, and to guarantee that protection will be provided to all asylum seekers who would be exposed to the risk of torture if they were to return to their countries.

Photo: Monique Ruppert, Chair of ACAT-Luxembourg, handing the petition over to Jean Olinger, Political Affairs Director at the Foreign Ministry (in the backgound: Bernadette Jung, member of the FIACAT international board).