UNITED NATIONS, Oct 24: The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture said on Monday he was disappointed with the United States Military Commissions Act passed recently, arguing if there was enough evidence that persons had been involved in Sept 11 attacks or had committed other criminal acts, ordinary courts in the United States were efficient enough to deal with them.
Rapporteur Manfred Nowak told a press conference that he was not convinced that military commissions would live up to international standards of independent, impartial tribunals.
“The United Nations Convention was very clear,” he said. “States had an obligation to criminalise torture with adequate sanctions. It was astonishing that the majority of States parties had not found it necessary to take the legislative measures and convey to their law enforcement officials the message that torture actually constituted a serious crime, which lead to serious consequences, such as long term prison sentences and not merely disciplinary sanctions.”
“Very few cases of torture were actually brought to justice and the practice of impunity was wide. Even when they were brought to justice, torture was often treated as a misdemeanour.”
“In the wake of Sept 11, 2001, much of his efforts had been devoted to the relationship between torture and counter-terrorism strategies,” Nowak said. After the events of that date, the absolute prohibition of torture had been put into question, not only by academics, but also by governments in saying there was a need to balance the prohibition of torture with national security concerns, by defining torture in a narrow sense and by allowing harsh interrogation methods that often went beyond what was allowed in international law.
