Posted on 07/24/2002 5:46:50 PM PDT by gcruse
US fails to derail UN vote on torture
By Carola Hoyos, United Nations correspondent
Published: July 24 2002 19:09 | Last Updated: July 24 2002 19:09
The US on Wednesday opposed a protocol for the international convention on torture that would set up an independent prisons inspection system, putting it again at odds with Europe over a big international treaty.
Human rights groups said Washington's plan to reopen discussions on the protocol, adopted in April after 10 years of negotiations, would have derailed the international effort to give teeth to the convention on torture. The convention was passed in 1989 and has since been ratified by 130 countries.
The protocol, passed 35-8 with 10 abstentions by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN after much debate on Wednesday night, was supported by many of the US's closest allies in Europe and Latin America, many of whom accused the US of trying to kill the document by stalling.
Washington's move was the latest in a string of divisive battles over international treaties, from biological weapons to the environment. Last month, the US bitterly fought within the UN Security Council to extract itself from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
The US, which signed up to the original torture treaty but abstained from voting for the protocol, insisted that if it had agreed to it the federal rights of the individual US states would be infringed.
Diplomats at the UN say the US Defense Department rejected the idea of opening up to international inspection the handling of terror suspects it has detained. Among facilities which would come under scrutiny would be the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"A vote against this optional protocol would be a disastrous setback in the fight against torture," said Martin MacPherson, of Amnesty International, before the vote.
"To re-open negotiations at this time could only lead to watering down the text - so that it will fail to fulfil its aim. . . "
Following the approval by ECOSOC the protocol will need a majority vote from the UN's 190-member General Assembly and 20 ratifications before coming into force. "Ultimately the question is does the US want to be seen as not being part of this, or does it want to be part of it under better conditions?" asked one diplomatic source.
Other states that opposed the protocol, such as Cuba and Syria, as well as many Asian countries with questionable human rights records, "are the sort of states the US doesn't want to be seen in bed with," he added.
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