UN tells US to close secret detention centers

The United Nations called on the United States to shut secret detention facilities and faulted the Bush administration for human rights abuses including failing to allow the Red Cross access to prisoners held in the "war on terror." The US "should immediately abolish all secret detention and secret detention facilities" as well as "grant prompt access" by the International Committee of the Red Cross to prisoners, says the 12-page report, published on July 28. The US must also stop transferring prisoners to countries where there is a risk they will be tortured and "acknowledge the applicability" of international law for individuals. The report also expressed concern at a wide range of US practices–including, the use of interrogation methods that violate the prohibition on torture and on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; police brutality; the shackling of pregnant inmates during labor and delivery; and the use of electroshock weapons such as Tasers. The report cites human rights violations such as discrimination and "racial disparities" in criminal prosecutions within the US as well as the lack of evacuation and treatment facilities for African Americans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last year. The report follows accusations that the CIA secretly transported terrorist suspects through other countries to detention facilities. The European Council of 46 nations said in June that the UK, Italy, Germany and four other European states cooperated with the illegal air transfers. The Supreme Court ruled last month that President Bush lacks Congressional authority to try Guantánamo Bay inmates before military tribunals. The court said that the tribunals used to try prisoners violate US military law, which affords such protections as the right to be present at trial and to call witnesses, and which the court said may give detainees the same rights as US citizens facing military prosecution.