torture

Mr. Juan Mendez, Special Rapporteur on Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

After CIA torture revelations, US must now recover moral high ground – UN expert

11 December 2014
The United States' use of torture when interrogating prisoners captured in its “War on Terror” has damaged the country's moral high ground and created a set-back in the global fight against the condemnable practice, a United Nations human rights expert has declared.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

On Human Rights Day, UN official calls for Member States to ‘stamp out torture’

10 December 2014
Governments must ramp up their efforts in eradicating the practice of torture and compensate the victims of this “most vicious of crimes,” the top United Nations human rights official has urged, as he marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention against Torture.
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism Ben Emmerson.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

UN expert calls for prosecution of CIA, US officials for crimes committed during interrogations

9 December 2014
A United States Senate report has confirmed what the international community has long believed – that there was a clear policy orchestrated at a high level within the Bush Administration which allowed to commit gross violations of international human rights law, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on counter terrorism and human rights said today.
Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture Malcolm Evans.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe

UN torture prevention body highlights States’ duty to allow access detention centres

3 December 2014
Countries that have ratified a key legal protocol that allows United Nations experts unannounced and unhindered access to places of detention are obliged to co-operate with such visits, the world body’s Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has reminded today.
Photo: IRIN
IRIN

UN rights experts call on US to commute death sentence of mentally ill prisoner

2 December 2014
Two United Nations human rights experts today urged the United States Government and the authorities in Texas to halt the execution of Scott Panetti, a prisoner with proven psychosocial disabilities, due to be carried out on 3 December.