Convention against Torture Implementation Act 2005: Leahy Bill On March 17, 2005 Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the “Convention against Torture Implementation Act 2005 (S. 654)” in the U.S. Senate.129 This legislation is similar in substance and scope to the Markey bill. The bill would prohibit the transfer of any person in U.S. custody to a country that appeared on a designated list of states where torture was a serious human rights problem. It would also prohibit such a transfer where “there are otherwise substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture” even if the country of return did not appear on the designated list. The secretary of state could waive the prohibition if the acts that were the basis for a particular country’s inclusion on the list “have ended” and a verifiable mechanism was in place to ensure that a person transferred to that country would not be tortured. Transfers made through lawful extradition of immigration proceedings would not be subject to the list of countries, but would still have to meet the standard set forth in article 3 of the Convention against Torture in each individual case. The U.S. would be prohibited from relying on diplomatic assurances as justification for any transfer of a person to another country: (c) Assurances Insufficient—Written or verbal assurances made to the United States by the government of a country that persons in its custody or control will not be tortured are not sufficient for believing that a person is not in danger of being subjected to torture. The Leahy bill would prohibit the use of diplomatic assurances as a sufficient safeguard against torture in immigration and extradition cases, as well as in rendition cases. In his statement in the Senate, Senator Leahy pointed to this provision of the bill as the most significant: Most importantly, the bill closes the diplomatic assurances loophole. We would no longer accept assurances from governments that we know engage in torture. Our past reliance on diplomatic assurances is blatantly hypocritical. How can our State Department denounce countries for 129 Convention against Torture Implementation Act 2005 (S. 654), O:\DAV\DAV05197.xml, March 17, 2005 [online] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:3:./temp/~c109YjXemX:: (retrieved March 25, 2005). HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17 NO. 4(D) 44