ACLU Launches Torture Database in Recognition of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

On June 26, 1987, exactly twenty-five years ago, the Convention Against Torture became binding upon the nations that had ratified it. The United Nations later designated the anniversary of that day the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. You can read our statement, about the importance of the Convention and the steps we must take as a nation to fully account for the torture and abuse of the last decade, here.

In recognition of the importance of this day, we are also launching the Torture Database, a compilation of over 100,000 pages of documents related to the Bush administration’s rendition, detention, and interrogation policies and practices. The database is our effort to provide meaningful public access to the primary documentation of torture and abuse during the years following September 11, 2001.

The database is both simple and advanced. It allows easy searching by keyword or through useful tags. And it allows more sophisticated searching by taking advantage of an enormous amount of metadata individually tagged in each and every document. We hope you’ll find it easy to use.

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