The UN human rights chief says that the global ban on torture is becoming a casualty of the "war on terror," singling out the reported US practices of sending terrorist suspects to other countries and holding prisoners in secret detention.
Louise Arbour's comments on Wednesday sparked an immediate rebuke from US Ambassador John Bolton who said it was "inappropriate and illegitimate for an international civil servant to second guess the conduct that we're engaged in the war on terror, with nothing more as evidence than what she reads in the newspapers."
It would be far more appropriate if Arbour had used Human Rights Day to talk about "the real human rights problems that exist in the world today," Bolton said, without elaborating on what they were.
Arbour told a news conference she chose the theme of "terrorists and torturers" to mark Saturday's annual commemoration of the UN's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 because the absolute ban on torture, once believed to be unassailable, is under attack.
"The absolute ban on torture, a cornerstone of the international human rights edifice ... is becoming a casualty of the so-called `war on terror,'" she said.
Arbour said "two phenomena today are having an acutely corrosive effect on the global ban on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" -- seeking diplomatic assurances to justify the return or transfer of suspects to countries where they face a risk of torture and holding prisoners in secret detention.
Diplomatic assurances may make countries complicit with torture carried out by others and secret detention facilities create the conditions for torture by a country's own agents, she said.
Arbour called on the US and other countries to state clearly and unambiguously what practices they accept and don't accept in the interrogation of suspects, and whether they operate secret detention centers at home or abroad and provide details.
The UN high commissioner for human rights also called for a ban on returning people to countries where they may face torture and on secret detentions, access to all prisoners, and prosecution of those responsible for torture and ill-treatment.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS