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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Five nations seen by rights groups as among the world's worst abusers were elected along with 39 other countries to the United Nations' new Human Rights Council in a first round of voting on Tuesday.Elsewhere:Russia, China, Cuba, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, identified by New York-based Human Rights Watch as unworthy of membership on the new U.N. body, were among those winning seats.
GENEVA--In the second day of an exchange with its human rights critics, the United States on Monday denied giving light punishments to service members and intelligence officers who carried out torture since the Sept. 11 attacks.While the smaller number proves that Bush is Hitler for not doing enough, the larger number proves that Bush is Hitler because it's such a large number.A delegation of American officials speaking before a UN panel on torture argued that the United States was acting to ensure that it adhered to its treaty obligations to prevent torture of prisoners despite the problems at prisons such as Abu Ghraib, Iraq. It characterized those cases as isolated.
"We recognize much of the world does hold the United States to a high standard," said a State Department legal adviser, John Bellinger, who led the delegation. "Without question, our record has improved."
The statements of the delegation, composed of 25 high-level officials, were in contrast to previous statements by Bush administration officials that international law should not constrain U.S. forces.
The delegation responded to charges ranging from an American failure to prosecute officers and intelligence officials, to the transfer of prisoners to countries with poor human rights records. The delegation was also asked about the fate of foreign terrorism suspects supposedly held in CIA-run prisons.
Charles Stimpson, a deputy assistant secretary for prisoner affairs at the Defense Department, said U.S. courts had court-martialed 103 American servicemen and intelligence officers, leading to 19 convictions with jail terms of a year or more.
That was in contrast to figures quoted by the panel last week, citing human rights groups, of 54 court-martials, with 10 jail terms of a year or more.
