In recognition of the United Nations Day for Victims and Survivors of Torture (June 26) and in solidarity with thousands of citizens nationwide taking part in Torture Awareness Month (June),Riverside's Social Justice ministry and members of Witness Against Torture will be joined by interfaith religious leaders and social justice advocates for a press conference demanding Ambassador John Bolton to join the international consensus against torture and “Shut Down Guantanamo” on Monday, June 26, 12:30 p.m. at the U.S. Mission to the U.N., 140 E. 45th St. (between 3rd and Lexington Avenues), Manhattan.

Preceding the press conference, participants will gather at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (47th St. and First Ave.), open with a Muslim prayer and then solemnly proceed to the U.S. Mission to the U.N. The procession will also include human rights advocates dressed as detainees in orange jumpsuits and locked in wheeled cages, and marchers carrying signs labeled “Shut Down Guantanamo” and listing names of prisoners there, including the three men who’s reported suicides were announced June 10, 2006.

Moderated by Witness Against Torture’s Frida Berrigan, the press conference will feature guest speakers: Imam Talib Abdur Rashid, Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood (NYC); Reverend Scott Colglazier, Chief Program Minister at The Riverside Church (NYC); Rabbi Melissa Weintraub, Rabbis for Human Rights; Bishop Jeremiah J. Park, New York area United Methodist Church; T. Paracha, nephew of Saifullah Paracha, a prisoner at Guantanamo arrested in Bangkok in July 2003; and Barbara J. Olshansky, Deputy Director for Litigation and Movement Support, Center for Constitutional Rights.

Following the press conference, some of the marchers will participate in a civil disobedience protest and attempt to bring a message directly to U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, demanding his action in helping to Shut Down Guantanamo and his commitment to ending U.S. torture.

The event marks Riverside Church's and the other groups’ involvement in a broader national movement of religious institutions—led by the National Religion Campaign Against Torture—to abolish all torture now -- without exceptions. “The Riverside Church firmly believes that not only is torture wrong, but because all people are created by God, the use of torture for any reason diminishes us all in the end,” said Rev. Colglazier

In commemoration of Torture Awareness Month (June) and in conjunction with various events nationwide, The Riverside Church Global Justice and Peace Ministry recently sponsored a panel discussion on Sunday, June 18 and is planning a documentary screening on Monday, June 26.

The panel discussion, entitled Torture and the Religious Response, explored issues of torture and features a diverse group of panelists including: Jeanne Herrick-Stare, National Religious Campaign Against Torture; Rabbi Michael Feinberg, Rabbis for Human Rights; Priti Patel, Human Rights First; a representative from the Islamic Society of North America; and Mark P. Denbeaux, a Seton Hall professor who authored a widely-reported profile of 517 Guantanamo detainees. The documentary screening, GITMO – The New Rules of War, reveals a scary new world in visits to Guantanamo Bay, Stockholm, Bucharest and Abu Ghraib in Iraq. The screening—which also serves as a fundraiser benefiting the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition—will be followed by a panel discussion with Mark Kennis, Amnesty International and Ramzi Kassem, counsel for Guantanamo detainees.

On June 12 the general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA and 27 national religious leaders signed a statement calling for the elimination of torture as a part of U.S. policy. The statement, "Torture is a Moral Issue, was published as an , advertisement in the June 13, 2006 issue of The New York Times, proclaims that torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions hold dear.

"There are few other issues on which the NCC's 35 member communions are more united," said NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar. "The use of torture or other dehumanizing measures is diametrically contrary to the love of God and the gospel of Jesus. One of the ideals of the United States is to stand in the world as a bastion against torture."

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