US rides storm of criticism over human rights record

THE United States weathered criticism of its human rights record from friends and foes alike in a United Nations forum that the former Bush administration had boycotted as hypocritical.

Senior US officials defended the United States against allegations it used torture and said President Barack Obama’s government had begun “turning the page” on practices of the Bush administration that had caused global outrage.

Former president George W Bush’s government had shunned the UN Human Rights Council, saying it did not need to be scolded by countries such as Syria and Cuba whose own records on human rights were poor. It also accused the council of being biased against Israel.

But US conduct in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and its campaign against terrorism — notably its treatment of prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay prison and the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad — has come under heavy criticism from many human rights organisations in recent years.

“Let there be no doubt, the United States does not torture and it will not torture,” Harold Hongju Koh, State Department legal adviser, told the council.

The Obama administration was committed to closing Guantanamo and ensuring all detainees held at home or in the war on terrorism were treated humanely, US officials said.

“Between Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo we have conducted hundreds of investigations regarding abuse allegations and those have led to hundreds of disciplinary actions,” Koh said.

The council’s first review of the US rights record was part of a gradual examination of the performance of all 192 UN members over a four-year period.

Diplomats from countries at odds with Washington — some of whom queued overnight to be among the first on the speakers’ list — hammered the US delegation for alleged abuses.

Cuban ambassador Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez spoke first, calling on Washington to end its embargo on the communist-ruled island and to respect its people’s right to self-determination.

Venezuela’s envoy German Mundarain Hernandez said the US should “close Guantanamo and secret detention centres around the world, punish those people who torture, disappear and execute detainees arbitrarily, and provide compensation to victims”.

Iran’s delegation accused the United States of violating human rights though covert CIA operations “carried out on pretext of combating terrorism”.

But allies also chided the United States.

European countries said Washington should ban the death penalty. Mexico urged it to halt racial profiling and the use of lethal force in controlling illegal migration.

Several delegations questioned the legality of the US use of force in Afghanistan and elsewhere.