UN rights boss slams abuses in war on terrorism

GENEVA, June 23 (Reuters) UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, taking aim at the war on terrorism, reminded all states today of their duty to ban torture and give all security detainees a fair trial.

In a speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Arbour also voiced concern at the alleged existence of secret detention centres, saying they facilitate abusive treatment.

Although she mentioned no names, her remarks were clearly aimed at the United States and its allies in their ''war on terror'' launched after the September. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001.

''It is vital that at all times governments anchor in law their response to terrorism,'' Arbour told the 47-member state body ahead of the UN's International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, being observed next Monday.

International human rights and humanitarian law imposed a series of constraints on all states ''with no exception'', said Arbour, a lawyer who formerly served as UN war crimes prosecutor and a Canadian Supreme Court judge.

''These include the absolute ban on torture and the right to a fair trial,'' she said.

The United States is holding some 460 security detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on suspicion of belonging to al Qaeda or the Taliban. Most have been held for years without charges.

US President George W Bush said this week he wanted to shut the prison and return inmates to their home countries.

Arbour said that, in the context of counter-terrorism activities, there had been a growing challenge to the absolute ban on torture embodied in the UN Convention against Torture.

The treaty, ratified by 141 countries including the United States, prohibits mistreating detainees as well as returning individuals to a country where they face a real risk of torture.

This was not a ''mere legal nicety'', Arbour said.

''International law requires that the prohibition of torture be ensured by active measures: in addition to not engaging in acts of torture themselves, states have a positive obligation to protect individuals from exposure to torture,'' she said.

Rights groups have accused the United States and its Central Intelligence Agency of moving suspects to countries that use torture in interrogations, by means of secret transfer flights known as ''renditions''.

The United States has acknowledged transferring terrorism suspects from one country to another but has denied it does so expecting they will be tortured.

Reports of secret detention centres, where suspects are held incommunicado, were of ''grave concern'', Arbour said.

The UN forum, which replaces the widely-discredited UN Commission on Human Rights, is mid-way through an inaugural two-week session.

The United States, which did not stand for election, has an observer delegation at the Geneva talks.

REUTERS SRS VV1608