MEDIA ADVISORY
June 4, 2014

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National interfaith human rights organization to mark Torture Awareness Month throughout June

WASHINGTON, D.C. - June is Torture Awareness Month, and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture is providing local congregations and faith organizations resources and activities to honor survivors of torture, ensure that the truth about the U.S. torture program is made public, and begin the restoration of human dignity for all.

With the theme, “Exposing the Truth of U.S. Torture: Restoring Human Dignity,” and focusing on the call for the White House and Congress to make the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture public, NRCAT has provided a toolkit to assist churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and other faith communities across the country in planning educational, advocacy and worship events to commemorate Torture Awareness Month. A full list of the largest events, all open to media, is below.

In conjunction with Torture Awareness Month activities, NRCAT launched a petition to President Obama, stating, “On April 3, 2014 a bipartisan majority of the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to release its report on post-9/11 CIA torture. Since then, reports indicate that the CIA has attempted to obstruct and delay its release. Now it is time for the truth to be revealed. No more obstruction, no more delays. Mr. President, make the report public now.”

Explaining why the faith community is focusing on the release of the Senate torture report, which was adopted by the Senate Intelligence Committee in December 2012 and sent to the White House for declassification in April of this year, Rev. Ron Stief, NRCAT’s executive director said, “The evidence is irrefutable – the United States, without a doubt, tortured. Our nation, once regarded as a defender of human rights, broke national and international law and long-held moral codes. At no time in the eight-year history of NRCAT has the role of the faith community been more important than it is now. Our years of organizing educational events, engaging in advocacy, holding worship and prayer services, and shaping the moral understanding of torture through op-eds and letters to the editor have paid off. We now have the factual basis to push the nation to act.”

In partnership with The Constitution Project, KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, and dozens of local secular and faith-based organizations, NRCAT is co-sponsoring five events across the U.S. this month focusing on generating awareness of The Constitution Project’s Detainee Treatment Report, produced last year, and human rights advocacy organizations’ ongoing push for the White House to make public the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report, described here by Stief. Additionally, congregations and faith groups have planned more than 75 screenings of NRCAT’s film “No Doubt, It Was Torture,” part of 150 educational and/or public witness events nationwide.

On June 3, the first of these five events was held in Seattle. More than 100 people gathered at University Temple United Methodist Church to hear Brig. General David R. Irvine (Ret.) speak on “Exposing the Truth of U.S. Torture: Restoring Human Dignity and the Rule of Law.” Irvine is a retired Army Reserve strategic intelligence officer, who taught prisoner interrogation and military law for 18 years. He is a member of The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment, which spent over two years compiling a 600-page report on U.S. held detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Iraq and CIA “black sites.” Other panelists in Seattle included the Rev. Rich Lang, Pastor of University Temple United Methodist Church, a consistent voice for global and local justice; Professor Beth Rivin, a pediatrician, Director of University of Washington’s Global Health and Justice Project; and Scott Roehm, Senior Counsel, Rule of Law Program, The Constitution Project.

Details on additional events follow:

Friday, June 6 – Washington, D.C. metro area, “Exposing the Truth of U.S. Torture: Restoring Human Dignity”
When: 6-8:30 p.m.
Where: ADAMS Center, 46903 Sugarland Road, Sterling, Va.
What: A panel discussion featuring:

• Imam Mohamed Magid, Imam, ADAMS Center
• Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, Founder & Chair, KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights; member, The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment
• Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs; member, The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment
• Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director, National Religious Campaign Against Torture

Saturday, June 21 -- Los Angeles, “Shining a Light on U.S. Torture”
When: 2-4 p.m.
Where: Immanuel Presbyterian Church, Westminster Chapel, 3300 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles
What: A panel discussion featuring:

• Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, Founder & Chair, KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights; member, The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment.
• Rev. William D. Smart Jr., President, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Los Angeles
• Additional panelists to be announced

Tuesday, June 24, Raleigh, N.C., “Coming to Terms with Torture: Truth, Accountability, and Renunciation”
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, 1801 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, N.C.
What: A panel discussion featuring:

• Dr. David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life, Mercer University; member, The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment
• Rev. Dr. Luke Powery, Dean of the Chapel, Associate Professor of the Practice of Homiletics, Duke University, who will offer a personal reflection on torture as a North Carolina faith leader
• Dr. Christina Cowger, Coordinator, North Carolina Stop Torture Now

Thursday, June 26, Washington, D.C., “Exposing the Truth of U.S. Torture: Restoring Human Dignity”
Where: 1420 16th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
When: 6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. program
What: A panel discussion featuring:

• Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, Founder & Chair, KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights; member, The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment
• Ambassador James R. Jones, Co-Chair, The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment
• Additional panelists to be announced

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January 2006, more than 300 religious organizations have joined NRCAT, including representatives from the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Sikh communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and local congregations.
www.nrcat.org   @NRCATtweets   facebook.com/nrcat

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