US officials were to respond yesterday to a barrage of questions and comments from UN human rights experts, who told the US it must set a better example for the world.
Members of the UN Human Rights Committee said on Monday that the US has to improve its record in areas ranging from treatment of Latin American migrants to the handling of detainees in the war on terrorism.
US officials said they would be as forthcoming as possible in the periodic review of Washington's adherence to the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
"I know that the United States has done very much in the past on behalf of human rights, but human rights are never totally acquired or guaranteed," said committee member Hipolito Solari Yrigoyen, a lawyer and human rights champion from Argentina.
Solari Yrigoyen said he was particularly worried about US efforts to deal the an estimated 9 million illegal migrants, mostly from south of the Mexican border.
"My major concern ... is the level of militarization on the border with Mexico," he said. "Militarization of the border creates a conflict zone."
He said vigilantes linked to extremist groups were already operating along the border, and "there have been many cases where migrants have been kicked or beaten by US citizens. We would like to know what has been done to deal with these criminal behaviors."
As one of the 156 countries that have signed the treaty, the US was taking its turn before the committee of 18 independent experts. The US' 120-page report was long overdue. It was a combination of reports due in 1998 and 2003, said panel member Rajsoomer Lallah, an Oxford educated lawyer and retired chief justice of Mauritius.
Criticism by the panel brings no penalties beyond international scrutiny. The committee is expected to issue conclusions before it wraps up its session July 28.
Lallah asked why the US, with all its resources, had been so late in submitting its report.
"Usually we ask such questions of very poor countries," he said.
Robert Harris, assistant State Department legal adviser, told reporters that the US was late because of the complexity of compiling the report on such a range of issues, but hopes to be punctual in the future.
Sir Nigel Rodley, a British law professor and longtime human rights expert, criticized the alleged US practice of holding detainees in the war on terror for long periods incommunicado.
"If some other state abducted US citizens, for example those plotting to overthrow the regime in that other state, would the US consider that state could hold them secretly anywhere on the planet for months or years on end without violating [the treaty]?" he said.
"Frankly I can't but express my astonishment and dismay that the state party deems fit to arrogate to itself a right to engage in a practice of such extravagant enormity, not to mention setting such an unfortunate example to others," he said.
Abdelfattah Amor, a senior Tunisian law professor, noted allegations of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
"It's only natural if outside the United States one expects a country free from reproach," Amor said. "We who defend human rights are uncomfortable."
The US delegation steered clear of questions about Guantanamo and torture allegations in its oral presentations to the committee on Monday, claiming that the treaty applies only within the United States, but, "as a courtesy," it provided written comments already presented to the UN Committee Against Torture in May.
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