by the state with the record of abuse. The state that solicits such dubious representations undermines the absolute prohibition against refoulement and gives tacit sanction to the other state’s policies and practices of torture. The arguments below illustrate why diplomatic assurances are an unreliable and ineffective safeguard against torture and prohibited ill-treatment. The Limits of Diplomacy Diplomacy entails the tactful management of foreign relations to promote the overall interests of the state. Human rights may be one of those interests, but it is seldom the only one, and as a consequence diplomacy cannot be an exclusive and reliable lever for human rights protection. The tender arts of negotiation and compromise that characterize diplomacy can undermine straightforward and assertive human rights protection. The fundamental right to be free from torture, however, is not negotiable or permitting of compromise. Diplomats are often quite candid that their top priority is to ensure friendly relations with other states, sometimes at the expense of confronting governments about possible human rights violations, including about breaches of pre-agreed diplomatic assurances. For example, when the former Swedish Ambassador to Egypt was asked why he let five weeks lapse before visiting two Egyptians expelled in December 2001 from Stockholm to Cairo following diplomatic assurances, he replied that the Swedes could not have visited the men immediately because that would have signaled a lack of trust in the Egyptian authorities.49 The men were held incommunicado in police custody and subsequently credibly claimed that they had been brutally mistreated in the course of those five weeks (see section on Sweden below). Likewise, the Canadian government has been criticized for its “so-called silent diplomacy” on behalf of Omar Khadr, a child detainee at Guantánamo Bay.50 According to the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, when stories of mistreatment at Guantánamo Bay first surfaced, the Canadian government sought and received assurances of humane treatment for Khadr from the U.S. authorities.51 But Khadr’s 49 In an interview on Swedish television, former Swedish Ambassador to Egypt Sven Linder stated: “What do you think [would] have happened if I had come rushing in after four or five days and demanded to see those people? It had been to signal from the start that we don’t trust you Egyptians.” See Swedish TV 4 Kalla Fakta Program, May 17, 2004, English transcript [online] http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/17/sweden8620.htm (retrieved March 1, 2005). 50 Michelle Shephard, “‘A Spectacular Failure:’ Canada has Done Nothing for Teen Jailed, Tortured at Guantanamo Bay; Lawyers: Ottawa’s ‘So-Called Silent Diplomacy’ Has Failed to Change Plight of Omar Khadr,” Toronto Star, February 10, 2005. 51 Ibid. 19 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17 NO. 4(D)