In 2004, Standish Willis, founder of Black People Against Police Torture, organized a group of attorneys, organizers, and human rights activists with the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights to raise the Burge torture cases in international fora.

Advocates presented the cases to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in October 2005, the UN Committee Against Torture in May 2006, the UN Human Rights Committee in July 2006, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in 2006, and the UN Committee on the Eradication of Racial Discrimination in February 2008.

The UN Committee Against Torture condemned the U.S. Government’s failure to comply with the UN Convention Against Torture, noted the “limited investigation and lack of prosecution” in the Burge torture cases, and called on the U.S. Government to “bring perpetrators to justice.”

In November of 2007, Black People Against Police Torture campaigned against the City of Chicago hosting the 2016 Olympics in light of Mayor Daley and the City of Chicago’s complicity in the Burge torture scandal. BPAPT demanded Mayor Daley and the City support federal prosecution of all the officers implicated in the Burge torture crimes and cover-up; support new hearings for the torture survivors who remained in prison; stop denying in court the “shameful” pattern and practice of torture and paying for the legal defense of Burge and his men; apologize to victims of torture by providing them compensation and establishing a treatment center for victims of Chicago Police torture; and direct Corporation Counsel to pursue litigation stripping the police pensions of Burge, among other things.

Standish Willis put out the call for “reparations” for Chicago Police torture survivors. He was the first to frame the need for expansive redress in this significant and revolutionary way.

The US Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois, in conjunction with the US Department of Justice, indicted Burge for perjury and obstruction of justice for falsely denying he and detectives at Area 2 Police Headquarters engaged in acts of torture and physical abuse in Madison Hobley’s civil rights case. [The statute of limitations had expired for the various related torture crimes he committed.]