US to block UN convention on torture Staff and agencies Wednesday July 24 2002 The Guardian
The United States intends to block a UN vote today on a plan to enforce an international convention on torture, US diplomats and human rights campaigners have claimed.
US qualms about the convention are said to focus on language which could be interpreted as allowing independent observers to visit US prisons and terrorism suspects being held by the US at its naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
The vote in the UN economic and social council, known as ECOSOC, is scheduled for today but a US official said the United States wants to reopen negotiations on the wording adopted in Geneva in April.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said independent visits to state prisons would be illegal because each state has its own penal laws, and an international convention allowing visits would infringe on the states' rights.
Another problem, the official said, is the issue of access to suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters captured in Afghanistan and other prisoners being held in the war on terrorism.
Human rights advocates argue that the controversial 15-page document, called an optional protocol, is essential to enforce an international convention on torture passed 10 years ago.
The protocol, the details of which have been in negotiation for a nearly decade, would be an optional, supplementary document. According to the text, the objective of the protocol is "to establish a system of regular visits undertaken by independent and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment".
A vote against the optional protocol would be a disastrous setback in the fight against torture, according to Martin MacPherson, head of Amnesty International's legal programme.
The protocol is widely supported by western European and Latin America. Activists fear if the United States succeeds in reopening the negotiations it will mean the "kiss of death" for the protocol, said Rory Mungoven of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"This protocol would create a more proactive mechanism that includes visits to prisons and other preventive measures which would help enforce the convention," said Mr Mungoven.
People were tortured or ill-treated by authorities in 111 countries last year, according to an Amnesty report.
The convention on torture was passed in 1989 and has since been ratified by about 130 countries, including the United States.
If the protocol is approved, it moves to the UN's general assembly where it would need to be approved by a majority of the 190 member states. It would require a further 20 ratifications before it could be enforced.
The United States will be represented at the vote today by ambassador Sichan Siv, the US representative to ECOSOC, who plans to ask the council to reopen negotiations, officials said.
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