Since 2001, the United States and United Kingdom have been systematically involved in the secret detention, rendition and torture of suspects of terrorism, in violation of domestic and international law. These practices have been exceptionally difficult to research: data are fragmentary, globally distributed, and buried under state secrecy and denial. As a consequence, accountability and oversight remain a significant challenge.
Dr Sam Raphael’s work as Co-Director of The Rendition Project has led to effective oversight, transparency and accountability of US and UK intelligence programmes, the development of a more robust policy framework in the UK and a measure of justice for victims of secret detention and torture.
Putting the pieces together
Central to Raphael’s research has been the development of innovative data collection and analysis methods, enabling him to systematically collect a range of exceptionally hard-to-reach primary materials in relation to the illegal practices of the US and UK intelligence agencies. He has directed fieldwork across four continents and built a large network of partners from legal, human rights and parliamentary sectors. As a result, thousands of flight records relating to CIA secret "torture flights", thousands of declassified and leaked documents from within intelligence programmes, and first-hand testimony from scores of individuals, were secured, collated and published by Raphael.
Raphael’s academic outputs provide the most detailed account to date of the systematic use of torture and disappearance by US and allied forces across the globe, locating the prisons, identifying the prisoners, mapping the companies and government personnel involved in the abuses, and situating these within a number of broader contexts: the historical evolution of the CIA’s global torture programme, the shifting geographies, the geopolitical turning points and the transnational networks which underpinned and shaped these practices.
His work has also resulted in pathbreaking accounts of British torture in the War on Terror (2001-2010). He has proven that Britain has been deeply and directly involved in post-9/11 prisoner abuse, and that successive UK governments have operated a "machinery of denial", acting consistently in ways which constrain investigation and deny accounting of the abuses which took place. Moreover, Raphael’s findings have established that – despite ministers and senior intelligence officials claiming to have "learned the lessons" from mistakes made after 2001 – current policy is framed deliberately to allow involvement in torturous practices to continue.
Accountability for the CIA’s torture programme
Raphael’s findings relating to the CIA’s torture programme have been central to ensure political and legal accountability for the systematic human rights abuses that took place, in the face of sustained obstruction and denial by the states involved.
Professor Margaret Satterthwaite, Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and former member of the Advisory Panel of Experts to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, testifies:
"Our efforts have been hugely strengthened by Dr Raphael’s work, which is considered a central reference point within the global human rights community for understanding the scale and scope of the program… The rigor of his research methods has had real, demonstrative impact on legal cases brought on behalf of victims of CIA torture."
Raphael’s research plays a central role in a number of national and international court settings, shaping detainee cases at the Guantanamo Bay Military Tribunals, torture victims’ claims at the European Court of Human Rights, and war crimes investigations at the International Criminal Court. It has been used to demonstrate in court the facts relating to the victims, including where they were held, how they were treated, and which countries were complicit in their mistreatment.
Accountability for UK torture during the War on Terror
Comprehensive findings on the scope and depth of UK torture in the War on Terror have influenced parliamentary and civil society efforts to investigate the abuse of state power and to push for public accountability.
The findings of Raphael and his colleague Ruth Blakeley act as the most comprehensive official account to date of British involvement in torture. As Dan Jarvis MBE MP, a leading opponent of torture, testifies:
"Professor Blakeley’s and Dr Raphael’s research findings have provided key evidence for my work in this field. They are two of the world’s leading academics on human rights abuses. Their efforts have underpinned international advocacy and legal campaigns, as well as influencing parliament, and exposed the extent of UK complicity and failures of accountability."
Despite the documentary evidence provided by Raphael and Blakeley, the government has refused to hold a public inquiry. Subsequent parliamentary and NGO challenge to this decision is shaped significantly by Raphael and Blakeley’s findings, and they have provided detailed consultation to the MPs and NGOs involved.
Strengthening safeguards against future UK involvement in torture
Through engagement with formal oversight bodies, Raphael’s research has resulted in the development of a more robust set of government guidelines on intelligence sharing and treatment of detainees.
Raphael’s work on the post-2010 "Consolidated Guidance" policy framework and his findings regarding the systemic weaknesses therein shaped the conclusions of a 2018 inquiry into the matter by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. Further findings published by Raphael in 2019 demonstrated that application of the framework by British officials has ensured routine authorisation for operations where torture is a serious risk, in explicit defiance of possible legal consequences. These findings were given front-page coverage in The Times, as well as a segment on Today, and sparked an urgent debate in Parliament.
As a result of significant parliamentary and civil society criticism of the policy framework, then Prime Minister May announced a review of the Consolidated Guidance by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC). Raphael and Blakeley were the only academics to submit to the subsequent consultation and played a key role in persuading a number of NGOs to make parallel submissions.
Raphael and Blakeley’s invitation to an IPC roundtable in December 2018 ensured that their findings were communicated directly to the commissioner. In turn, they were largely integrated into the formal recommendations to government and led directly to policy change. The amended policy framework ("The Principles") is significantly more robust as a direct result of Raphael’s research, with a much closer alignment to the UK’s stated legal and ethical commitments.
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