On this day TASSC remembers the tens of thousands of detained-disappeared persons throughout the world. We remember, too, our dear friend and TASSC colleague, Patrick Rice, who was named General Coordinator of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) shortly before his tragic death July 7.

On August 30 2008, which marked the 25th anniversary of the International Day of the Disappeared, the ICAED voiced particular concern about the fate and predicament of persons who have been forcefully disappeared and called for action to help them.

On this date, ICAED members appealed to Heads of State across the globe to sign, ratify and implement the Convention against Enforced Disappearances. An appeal letter was sent to all Heads of State on August 30.

The letter was signed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, other Nobel Peace Prize winners, numerous human rights defenders and a vast number of NGOs.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel drafted a letter in support of the struggle of the families of the disappeared. He reiterates that the Convention is fundamental to eradicate the phenomenon. Read letter (in Spanish)

Together with the appeal letter, an impressive photo publication was sent to show the global scale of enforced disappearances and the effects on the relatives.

Alongside this, activities were carried out in more than 20 countries to commemorate the disappeared. Family member organizations and human rights organizations in countries such as Iraq, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Algeria and the Netherlands spoke out and demanded attention for enforced disappearances.

Please also read the press releaseand look at the special page on the ‘Road to August 30‘ with information in five languages. ‹Continue reading about TASSC Commemorates August 30 – International Day of the Disappeared …›

Survivors’ Week 2010, June 21-27 in Washington DC

Breaking the Cycle of Torture

“We Must Never Forget, History Will Judge Us… If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others we would not be willing to have invoked against us.” – Chief Justice Robert Jackson, Chief Prosecutor for the United States at the Nuremberg Tribunals

During the month of June, 2010, TASSC International invited survivors of torture from around the world for the 13th Annual Torture Survivors Week held in Washington DC. As a movement of torture survivors, TASSC International issues a clear call to end torture wherever it occurs, and to support all the efforts to disclose the truth, bring justice to the families of victims and to survivors, and to hold accountable government officials responsible for torture.

We began our activities June 21 – 23 with a Human Rights Training for survivors and for human rights and faith-based activists working to end torture, wherever it occurs. The training was held over three days, and was led by Patrick Rice, a survivor of torture from Argentina and former secretary general of FEDEFAM, the Family Members of the Disappeared in Latin America. Patrick died suddenly just two weeks after the training. His death is a loss not only to his family, to survivors and friends who knew and love him, but to the international human rights movement.

The human rights training focused on using the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, the United Nations Convention against Torture and the Convention against Enforced Disappearances to defend human rights. The training also looked at how truth commissions, international tribunals, and criminal prosecution have been employed in post-conflict situations in several countries to achieve transitional justice and national reconciliation.

On June 24, survivors joined TASSC staff and interns to visit members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and to make the case for ending torture everywhere. We shared with members of the Senate why it is important for the U.S. to pressure our countries of origin to end torture, and why holding those who torture accountable is so crucial to ending torture. In the evening TASSC celebrated an opening night welcome for survivors and friends at Busboys and Poets.

Day 4: Congressional Visits and Survivor Celebration at Busboys and Poets

On June 25, TASSC joined the National Religious Campaign against Torture (NRCAT), Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights, and many other human rights and religious organizations in cosponsoring a panel discussion on “Accountability Now – Ending Torture Forever” at the National City Christian Church (5 Thomas Circle, NW), that featured David Cole (Georgetown University Law Center), Sister Dianna Ortiz (Pax Christi USA), Sondra Crosby, MD (Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights), and Matthew Alexander (former interrogator).

Day 6: 13th Annual Vigil to Commemorate the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

On Saturday morning, June 26, from 7 am to 7 pm, in Lafayette Park across from the White House, TASSC held its 13th annual vigil to commemorate the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The purpose of the vigil was to remember the survivors and victims of torture, and to build a powerful movement for the abolition of torture everywhere. All TASSC survivor-members thank you for your support and for your on-going commitment to rid our world of torture.

TASSC International Joins Family, Friends & Fellow Survivors in Mourning the Death of Patrick Rice

It is with a heavy heart that we write to tell you we have lost our dear brother Patrick Rice.  He died last night (July 7) in the Miami International Airport while en route from Ireland to Buenos Aires. The Miami Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the cause of death to be a heart attack.  His body will be repatriated to his family in Argentina on Sunday (July 11) for a wake Monday night, and a memorial service Tuesday morning in his home parish, Santa Cruz, in Buenos Aires.

What a gift it was for many of us at TASSC to be with Patrick less than 2 weeks ago for Survivors’ Week, when he led survivors in a three-day human rights training.  Patricio was a vibrant, loving person who touched everyone he met with his positive energy.  He devoted his life to the fight against torture and enforced disappearances, and we are forever grateful for his passionate witness. 

Patrick was a longtime member of TASSC who was imprisoned and tortured in 1976 while serving as a missionary priest in Argentina.  A native of Ireland, he had gone to Argentina as a priest with the Divine Word Missionaries.  Dissatisfied with his pastoral role, he joined the Little Brothers (Hermanitos) of Charles de Foucauld, and began organizing workers and helping the poor, and later became superior of the order in Argentina. 

When he started actively investigating the military government’s human rights abuses and atrocities, he and a young Argentine catechist, Fatima Cabrera, were captured and tortured by the military. After his release, he became a powerful voice denouncing torture and shining the light on injustice.

He helped found and participate in many human rights organizations in Europe, the U.S., and Latin American, joining with fellow survivors and families of the disappeared to investigate torture, disappearances, and to advocate for justice and accountability for human rights abuses. 

In 1984, he returned to Argentina from exile and was reunited with Fatima Cabrera. He laicized as a priest and they were married the following year.

Patrick was a key member of the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, whose work resulted in the General Assembly adopting the UN Convention against Involuntary and Enforced Disappearances in December 2006, and defining involuntary and enforced disappearances as “crimes against humanity.” He was also one of the founding members and later General Secretary of the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of the Disappeared-Detainees (FEDEFAM). 

He is survived by his wife Fatima, and their three children, Amy, Carlos, and Blanca, who live in their home in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

The TASSC family deeply mourns Patrick’s passing and our hearts ache for his family.  We commit ourselves to continuing the work of this courageous and generous man to end torture and enforced disappearances forever, and to defend the rights of survivors everywhere.

The story of his detention and torture in Argentina, the disappearance of 30,000 persons by the Argentine military dictatorship between 1976-1980, and the persecution of the Church in Latin America is told in chapter one of Penny Lernoux’s book: Cry of the People. Today, after 30 years, many of the military responsible for torture are on trial for crimes against humanity.

“>

Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan 

Saturday, July 10, 2010

MINISTER for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin last night led tributes to renowned Irish human rights champion, Pat Rice who died this week unexpectedly, aged 64.

Mr Rice spent 40 years in Latin America working in human rights education and campaigning on behalf of families of the “disappeared”. He himself was kidnapped and tortured while working as a missionary priest in Argentina.

Mr Martin described him as an “an extraordinary Irishman: a teacher, educator, activist and lobbyist who will be remembered for the profound impact he has made on Ireland, on Argentina, and on the international human rights arena”.

Professor of History, Dermot Keogh described his close friend as a “truly selfless man, of great personal and moral courage and also the most unaffected man you could meet”.

Born in Fermoy, Co Cork, in September 1945, Pat Rice joined the Divine Word Missionaries, studied at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and was ordained in 1970. He was posted to Argentina but dissatisfied with his pastoral role, left the Divine Word Missionaries in 1972 and joined the Little Brothers (Hermanitos) of Charles de Foucauld.

Over the following years in Argentina, he ran extensive human rights education programmes and helped form a union movement while working as a labourer priest. He also began on his life’s work, the investigation of the “disappeared”. The military viewed the Hermanitos’ work with suspicion and on October 11 1976, Mr Rice and a young Christian worker, Fatima were bundled into a car driven to a secret detention centre and systematically abused and tortured. Through the intervention of the Irish Embassy in Argentina and especially the then third secretary, Justin Harman, Mr Rice was set free two months later.

As he was being released, his captors asked him to write something positive in their records.

In the words of Professor Keogh, “he wrote, with characteristic understatement: ‘I might have been treated better’”.

On his release, Pat Rice was instrumental in the creation of the Committee for Human Rights in Argentina; the US Government hearing on the disappeared in Argentina; and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

He was a founding member and served both as the executive secretary (1981-1987) and as a senior advisor to the executive committee (1999-2010) of FEDEFAM (the Latin American Federation of Association of Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees).

Pat Rice was re-united with his former co-prisoner Fatima in 1984 and a year later was laicised and they were married.

The couple were both united in a devotion to the poor and illiterate.

Pat Rice was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Law from University College Cork in 2008.

He is survived by Fatima and their children Carlos, Amy and Blanca.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, July 10, 2010