Brussels, 23/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 19 May in Geneva the UN Committee against Torture declared that the US should close their prison in Guantanamo, Cuba and put an end to detentions of prisoners in secret detention centres. The UN committee affirmed in its report that, “the US should stop detaining people in Guantanamo Bay and should close the detention centre” allowing prisoners to access legal counsel or be released. The committee noted that the “detention of people for an undetermined period of time without charge, constitutes an intrinsic violation of the UN Convention against torture”. It also denounced the absence of legal protection on the US base on Cuban territory. The committee expressed its concern about possible secret prisons existing in Europe. In its recommendations addressed to Washington the committee underlined that the US “should stop holding people in secret detention sites in all territories, including territories under their jurisdiction or under their de facto control”. Experts described the US “no comment” to the European Parliament's temporary committee on flights and secret prisons as “regrettable” (EUROPE 9194). The USA is also called on to “investigate and disclose the existence of such installations, the authority under which they are established and the way in which detainees are treated”.
The committee (its conclusions are not binding) met on 4 May to assess how Washington is respecting the UN Convention against Torture and other punishments, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, signed in 1984. A senior official from the State Department John B. Bellinger said that there were “many mistakes” in the report and asserted that the committee had “ignored” hundreds of explanatory pages provided by the US authorities.
European Parliament Plenary Session