Make your voice heard. Torture is not a partisan issue, it is immoral.

The Center for Victims of Torture, together with the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights, is organizing a non-partisan, educational campaign in Iowa aimed at raising awareness of the issues surrounding U.S. interrogation policy, torture and abuse. In an effort to focus on the fundamental moral grounding in opposing torture, it is essential that faith communities in Iowa speak up on this issue.

CVT and the MCHR encourage you to engage with both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in public forums on the issue of opposing torture. Here are two questions you can ask at candidate events:

1. I’m concerned that the CIA is using different interrogation techniques than the military. What will you do to ensure that the US has one standard for detainee treatment that does in fact outlaw torture and other abusive tactics?
2. As president, what would you do to end secret prisons, disappearances and the practice of rendering people to other countries that are known to torture detainees?

Additionally, we encourage you to join the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and sign their Statement of Conscience. It reads as follows:

“Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved -- policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished ideals. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable.
Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed? Let America abolish torture now -- without exceptions.”
Join over 18,000 people who have already endorsed this statement.
Log on to NRCAT’s website to sign. www.nrcat.org

If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about our project, please contact Hillari Hoerschelman at hillari.hoerschelman@gmail.com or call at 319-461-8585. Visit www.cvt.org or www.midwesthumanrights.org for more information.