Britain's past, America's future?

With most legal options now closed off by the recent passage of the Torture Act, those currently illegally detained and mistreated by the US government would appear to have little opportunity to address their mistreatment.

Perhaps something that is unfolding in the British courts pertaining to the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya 50 years ago may provide a glimmer of hope. Lawyers acting for veterans of the conflict from the twilight years of the colonial era will sue the British government for mistreatment, rape and torture.

"Martyn Day, the British lawyer representing the former detainees, said torture was not carried out by a few rogue soldiers, but as a policy. 'In torturing people under their control, or allowing torture to take place, the British were negligent, they committed assault, they breached the European convention on human rights that was in effect at the time and they caused very severe suffering'".

Now that the American government has officially sanctioned torture, detention without trial and other abuses of humans rights and violations of the Geneva Conventions it may be time to consider whether options to redress the abuse exist within the civil courts.