From: Piper M. Hendricks, Conrad & Scherer, LLP/International Rights Advocates
To: Guatemala Subgroup
Colleagues,
We at International Rights Advocates invite you to sign your support to the attached letter regarding the case of the Guatemalan victims of non-consensual human medical experimentation by U.S.government authorities. As you may know, beginning in the late 1940s, U.S. medical researchers intentionally infected over 1,000 Guatemalan citizens with venereal diseases and used at least 5,000 people without their consent in medical experiments that took place in Guatemala around the same time as the tragic Tuskegee experiments here in the U.S.
After DOJ failed to respond to our request to address this atrocity out of court, our organization filed a lawsuit last March representing the Guatemalan victims. We have learned that, despite an apology by President Obama and Secretary Clinton in October 2010 and a devastating report by the Presidential Bioethical Commission in September 2011 about the experiments, DOJ now plans to assert IMMUNITY, arguing that the U.S. should not be held accountable for these crimes against humanity. This legal move undermines the human rights principles for which all of our organizations stand and suggests that the U.S. is above providing remedies for its wrongs. DOJ's motion to dismiss based on immunity is due to be filed on Monday, January 9.
We are looking for international organizations who will let Pres. Obama know that we do not support undermining human rights principles in this manner. To join this letter, please contact Piper Hendricks at phendricks@conradscherer.com .
This unique case is as clear cut as it gets: the violations are documented, our President and others already apologized for them, and now DOJ wants to avoid legal accountability.
For the Commission's "Ethically Impossible" report, read here:
For additional information, read here: and here:
Piper M. Hendricks
Conrad & Scherer, LLP/International Rights Advocates
1156 15th Street NW, Suite 502
Washington, DC 20005
Ph: 202-527-7986
Fax: 866-803-1125
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