The United Nations Committee Against Torture released a report Friday highly critical of the U.S. and its track record of police brutality, undue interrogations and questionable imprisonment practices.
In the first report of its kind from the U.N. since 2006, the committee addressed continuing violations of international treaties, including excessive use of police force and brutality, indefinite detention without trial, widespread use of solitary confinement, abusive interrogation techniques, and cruel and inhumane executions, reported The Guardian.
The committee praised President Barack Obama for banning excessive interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, which were widely used under the Bush administration, but cautioned one particular Bush-era interrogation technique still being used: sleep deprivation.
The rules for such techniques – found in the Army Field Manual and titled the Human Intelligence Collector Operations – allow interrogators to physically separate detainees to prevent communication with each other which could result in the sharing of damaging information. It tells interrogators to avoid several forms of previously allowed forms of abuse, such as loud defening noises, constant light, or freezing cells, but it does give interrogators permission to keep detainees awake for up to 20 hours a day.
“Such provision applicable over an initial period of 30 days, which is renewable, amounts to authorizing sleep deprivation – a form of ill-treatment - and is unrelated to the aim of the 'physical separation technique' which is to preventing communication among detainees," the report said.
"The State party should ensure detainee’s needs in terms of sleep time and that sleeping accommodation provided for the use of prisoners is in conformity the requirements of Rule 10 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Equally, the State party should abolish sensory deprivation aimed at prolonging the shock of capture by applying goggles or blindfolds and earmuffs to generate a perception of separation, which based on recent scientific findings with high probability will create a state of psychosis with the detainee.”
The committee stressed its concern over reports of "extensive use of solitary confinement and other forms of isolation in U.S. prisons" saying that "full isolation for 22-23 hours a day in super-maximum security prisons is unacceptable."
Continued use of solitary confinement is something that should be used as a "measure of last resort, for as short of a time as possible under strict supervision and with the possibility of judicial review," the report said.
Regarding counter-terrorism measures, the committee expressed its "grave concern" over the practice of extraordinary rendition and secret overseas imprisonment programs operated by the CIA from 2001 to 2008. It also expressed concern over the government's failure to fully investigate allegations of torture of suspects held in U.S. custody abroad.
The majority of criticisms are directed at Bush-era policies from 2001 to 2009, but the U.N. reprimanded the current administration for failing to clean up out of control programs created in the aftermath of 9/11.
“The Committee calls for the declassification and prompt public release of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's report on the CIA's secret detention and interrogation programme with minimal redactions,” the report said.
In light of the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, the report also mentions that the committee is concerned about widespread reports of police brutality against persons of certain racial groups and the growing police militarization. Police violence against African-Americans and Latinos in Chicago is specifically mentioned.
The U.S. is requested to provide a follow up response to the issues raised by Nov. 28, 2015.
