Iraqi forces accused of killing, torturing civilians south of Mosul

Iraqi government forces killed and tortured civilians south of Mosul, rights groups have said, in the first such reports of alleged abuse in the US-backed campaign to retake the city from the so-called Islamic State.

État d'urgence en Turquie: des détenus torturés, selon Human Rights Watch

Des personnes arrêtées après le putsch manqué en juillet en Turquie ont été "torturées ou maltraitées", a affirmé mardi l'ONG Human Rights Watch (HRW), estimant que l'état d'urgence en vigueur donne "carte blanche" aux policiers pour commettre des abus.

Australia rejects claims Nauru asylum-seeker camp is 'torture'

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has rejected Amnesty International's claims that Australia's detention of asylum-seekers on the Pacific island of Nauru amounts to torture as "absolutely false".

US announces transfer of 6 Guantanamo detainees to Oman

The United States has transferred six detainees from its Guantanamo Bay prison to Oman, the Department of Defense announced on Saturday in a statement.

On CIA interrogation report, Cheney says ends justified the means

Former vice president Dick Cheney responded aggressively on Sunday to findings in a Senate report that the Central Intelligence Agency tortured foreign combatants under the Bush administration.

China slams US for criticism on human rights situation

 China’s foreign ministry rejected Thursday recent criticism from U.S. officials, warning that an attempt to discredit China would reveal American hypocrisy and double standards on human rights issues.

Commentary: Hypocrisy of U.S. as human rights police

BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- The hegemony it has exercised, the inquisition by torture it has practised, and the profound racial inequalities all point to the sheer hypocrisy of the United States as a defender of human rights.

One day before the annual World Human Rights Day, a report detailing tortures and abuses conducted by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against prisoners in Guantanamo and Afghanistan has provoked strident criticisms worldside.

EU says CIA torture report 'positive step'. (Federica Mogherini issued a separate statement earlier Wednesday to mark UN Human Rights Day)

The European Union on Wednesday said a US Senate report exposing brutal yet ineffective CIA torture of al-Qaida suspects was a "positive step" in recognising the programme's failings.

China urges US to "correct ways" after torture report

China urged the United States Wednesday to "correct its ways", after the U.S. Senate said in a report the CIA misled the White House and public about its torture of detainees and acted more brutally and pervasively than it acknowledged.

UN expert calls for prosecution of CIA, US officials for crimes committed during interrogations

UN, 9 December 2014 – A United States Senate report has confirmed what the international community has long believed – that there was a clear policy orchestrated at a high level within the Bush Administration which allowed to commit gross violations of international human rights law, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on counter terrorism and human rights said today.

US Senate report condemns CIA brutality (CIA employed interrogation techniques "far worse and brutal" than it admitted)

A US Senate report on harsh techniques employed to interrogate 'terror' suspects post-9/11 attacks has condemned the CIA for brutality and deception.
The heavily redacted 480-page report - published on Tuesday - covered the treatment of around 100 suspects rounded up by US operatives between 2001 and 2009 on terrorism charges.

Report on CIA torture to be released Tuesday (White House)

A long-delayed Senate report on the US Central Intelligence Agency's brutal interrogation of suspected Al-Qaeda operatives will be made public on Tuesday, the White House said. 

While heavily redacted, the report is expected to be a damning indictment of a secret program to question more than 100 detainees using what President Barack Obama has already called torture.

GEO xronos news in brief (December 2014 - C)

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Torture can be a “useful” tool in certain cases French far-right leader Marine le Pen said on Wednesday, before later backtracking and stating that her words had been “misinterpreted”.

Speaking early Wednesday on BFMTV in an interview discussing the revelations that the CIA used brutal interrogation methods, Le Pen said she “did not condemn” the use of torture when questioning terror suspects.

“Of course [torture] can be used,” she said. “It’s been used throughout history.”.....................French far-right leader Le Pen 'defends' use of torture.

White House: No bypass of Congress for Guantanamo closure

The White House said on Friday it aimed to work with US lawmakers towards closing Guantanamo and was not "drafting options" for circumventing a congressional ban on transferring detainees to US soil.

"Our position right now, our policy right now, is seeking support from Congress to lift the restrictions which we feel are misguided," White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters.

Syria torture must lead to intervention, says Turkey.

Jen Psaki said, "these atrocities are exactly why we have supported efforts like the one that occurred in the UN Security Council to refer the Syrian regime to the ICC," in response to a question from an AA correspondent at Thursday’s daily briefing....
 
Turkey's ruling party uses the appearance of new photographs allegedly depicting torture in Syria, which were submitted by the Anadolu Agency’s New York Bureau to the UN on Friday, to reiterate the call for international agencies to intervene in Syria.

UN rights chief condemns rampant use of torture by Syrian forces, opposition groups. - (some armed opposition groups)

UN, 14 April 2014 – The United Nations human rights chief today condemned the rampant use of torture, including allegedly of children, in detention facilities across Syria by Government forces and some armed opposition groups.

“In armed conflict, torture constitutes a war crime. When it is used in a systematic or widespread manner, which is almost certainly the case in Syria, it also amounts to a crime against humanity,” said High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.

“I urge the Government and armed opposition groups in Syria to immediately halt the use of torture and ill-treatment, and to release all those who have been arbitrarily detained in conditions that clearly breach international human rights standards. Those detained must be treated humanely.”

US Violates UN Convention against Torture. -- Declassification of the US Senate Report on George W. Bush-era CIA torture techniques

Washington violates UN Convention against Torture by delaying declassification of the US Senate Report on George W. Bush-era CIA torture techniques, Konstantin Dolgov, Russian Foreign Ministry Commissioner for Human Rights, said Wednesday.

"The Obama administration violates the Convention against Torture by delaying declassification of the Report and by refusing to bring the perpetrators to justice," Dolgov wrote in his Twitter micro-blog.

Dolgov also noted that the leaks in the media indicate that internal investigation by US authorities might have revealed previously undisclosed methods of torture.