United States loses fight to block U.N. vote on torture convention

UNITED NATIONS - The United States failed to block a U.N. vote on a plan to enforce a treaty on torture, and its attempts to do so were widely criticized by European and Latin American allies.



Among U.S. concerns was language that could allow for international and independent visits to U.S. prisons and to terror suspects being held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Such visits are unlikely unless the United States chooses to adopt the plan, known as a protocol, which seeks to enforce the 1989 treaty against torture.

The objective of the protocol is "to establish a system of regular visits undertaken by independent and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment."

The protocol to the treaty passed late Wednesday by a vote of 35-8 with 10 abstentions in the U.N. Economic and Social Council. The United States abstained.

A U.S. proposal to reopen 10 years of negotiations on the document was voted down 29-15 with the rest abstaining.

Denmark, which read a statement on behalf of the European Union ( news - web sites), accused the United States of intentionally stalling in order to kill the proposal. Costa Rica, which sponsored the plan, "urged all delegations to vote against," the American request to reopen negotiations.

Human rights advocates and diplomats argued that the protocol was essential to enforce the international convention on torture passed 13 years ago and since ratified by about 130 countries, including the United States. Countries are supposed to enforce the convention on their own, but rights groups argue that that isn't working everywhere.