Black sites. Enforced disappearances and abduction. Torture. On the 15^th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, we have seen little legal accountability for the systematic and extensive human rights abuses which took place as part of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism measures following the attacks of 9/11. American officials responsible for designing and executing torture policies continue to hold positions of authority. Gina Haspel, who oversaw a black site in Thailand, is now the President’s choice to lead the CIA. How has our failure to account for past abuses impacted human rights today? What can international experience teach us about the legacy of impunity?

Carmen Cheung is the Legal Director of the Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA), a San Francisco-based human rights organization. Prior to joining CJA, she was a Professor of Global Practice at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, where her teaching and research focused on security and human rights, and state responses to threats to public safety and security. Carmen began her legal career at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where she was involved in cases challenging the Bush administration’s conduct of the “war on terror”, including Rasul v. Rumsfeld, Arar v. Ashcroft, and Boumediene v. Bush. She is currently a Fellow of the Human Rights Center at SLS.