UN panel condemns U.S. torture

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http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/3603/1/190/

At hearings in Geneva May 5-8, a panel of 10 independent experts examined U.S. compliance with the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This is the first time U.S. compliance has been examined by the UN committee since 9/11.

The U.S. is one of the 141 signers of the Convention Against Torture, which completely bans torture, whether in peace, war or armed conflict.

The U.S. last appeared before the committee in May 2000. At that time the UN body criticized practices in U.S. domestic prisons, such as use of electroshock weapons, excessively harsh conditions in super-maximum security prisons, and abuses against women including sexual abuse by guards and shackling while pregnant and during labor. Such practices have not only continued to be used in U.S. prisons but have been exported to U.S. facilities abroad. snip

The AI report says the U.S. has not yet prosecuted a single official, military officer or private contractor, for torture or war crimes related to its occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan or the “war on terror.” According to Curt Goering, AI USA senior deputy executive director, “The heaviest sentence imposed on anyone to date for a torture-related death while in U.S. custody was five months — the same sentence you might receive for stealing a bicycle.” The five-month sentence resulted from the death of a 22-year-old Afghani taxi driver who was hooded, chained to a ceiling, then kicked and beaten until dead. Goering emphasizes that “the U.S. government is not only failing to eradicate torture but it is actually creating a climate in which torture can flourish.”