UK human rights record under pressure from UN torture panel
Source: The Guardian
The UK has faced tough questions this week from a UN panel closely scrutinising the UK's human rights record, following a series of disclosures about involvement in so-called extraordinary rendition and torture in the years following the 9/11 attacks.
Over two days in Geneva, the UK delegation went before the UN committee which monitors the implementation of the international convention against torture to face hundreds of questions covering a range of issues including: complicity in abusive interrogation; renditions to Libya; the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq; and the stalled official British inquiry into the treatment of terrorism suspects.
Almost every state faces regular examination by the UN's Committee against Torture, although the UK's appearance has been delayed for a number of years following its late submission of documentary evidence. Once the evidence sessions finally got underway, some of the committee's members displayed increasing exasperation as they accused the UK delegation of carefully evading some significant questions.
After posing a series of questions about the killing of Baha Mousa and the mistreatment of individuals detained by the British army in Iraq, Xuexian Wang, a Chinese diplomat, complained loudly that while the UK delegation's responses were being "given in beautiful English", they seemed "almost to be non-answers".
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/may/09/uk-human-rights-record
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