USA: UN human rights experts concerned at counter-terrorism measures

In its conclusions concerning US compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), issued on 28 July, the Human Rights Committee (HRC) called on the US to close all secret detention facilities, to punish US personnel who authorized interrogation techniques amounting to torture or ill-treatment, and to allow Guantánamo detainees to challenge their treatment or conditions of detention before a court. The Committee also noted with concern the restrictive interpretation of the ICCPR by the US that it does not apply to individuals outside its territory nor in the context of an armed conflict, despite established positions of the Committee on these issues.