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UN rights panel focuses on US record
By Frances Williams in Geneva
Updated: 2 hours, 13 minutes ago
MSNBC
US officials on Monday faced their second grilling in two months by United Nations human rights experts on alleged violations of international law in the fight against terrorism.
The 18-member UN human rights committee, which oversees countries' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, made it clear that it did not accept US arguments that the covenant did not apply to US actions abroad.
Human rights groups argue that the US is failing to respect key provisions of the covenant in its "war on terror", especially in relation to the detention without charge of thousands of non-US nationals held in prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantánamo Bay and secret locations.
Alleged abuses documented by Amnesty International, among other groups, and submitted to the human rights committee include torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, "disappearances" and "extraordinary" renditions of terror suspects to countries known to practise torture.
Sir Nigel Rodley, a UK expert on the committee and a former UN torture envoy, said prolonged secret detention was an egregious violation of the covenant and he was "dismayed and astonished" that the US was apparently carrying out a "practice of such extravagant enormity".
More at MSNBC Link
By Frances Williams in Geneva
Updated: 2 hours, 13 minutes ago
MSNBC
US officials on Monday faced their second grilling in two months by United Nations human rights experts on alleged violations of international law in the fight against terrorism.
The 18-member UN human rights committee, which oversees countries' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, made it clear that it did not accept US arguments that the covenant did not apply to US actions abroad.
Human rights groups argue that the US is failing to respect key provisions of the covenant in its "war on terror", especially in relation to the detention without charge of thousands of non-US nationals held in prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantánamo Bay and secret locations.
Alleged abuses documented by Amnesty International, among other groups, and submitted to the human rights committee include torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, "disappearances" and "extraordinary" renditions of terror suspects to countries known to practise torture.
Sir Nigel Rodley, a UK expert on the committee and a former UN torture envoy, said prolonged secret detention was an egregious violation of the covenant and he was "dismayed and astonished" that the US was apparently carrying out a "practice of such extravagant enormity".
More at MSNBC Link