U.N. Urges U.S. to Shut Guantanamo Prison

In this April 6, 2006 file photo, reviewed by U.S. Military officials, a detainee walks and others sit, as a guard looks on standing next to a hut, within the fenced in grounds of the maximum security prison at Camp Delta, at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba. United States should close its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and avoid using secret detention facilities in its war on terror, a U.N. panel report released Friday May 19, 2006 said. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) (Brennan Linsley - AP)

The committee periodically reviews the performance of the United States and each of the other 140 signatories of the anti-torture treaty. The criticism carries no penalties beyond international scrutiny, but human rights activists said it could influence U.S. public opinion.

Andreas Mavrommatis, a Cypriot rights expert who was chairman of the committee's review of U.S. procedures, said the report should not be blown out of proportion because the United States has "a very good record of human rights" overall.

"Yes, we have identified certain" problems in the war on terrorism, Mavrommatis said. "We are telling them we hope to have a dialogue, and we trust that they might take the necessary measures to improve."

The panel said it was worried detainees were being held for protracted periods with insufficient legal safeguards and without judicial review.

Bellinger noted the United States had acknowledged problems at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere, but said it has worked to make improvements.

"We have tightened our laws and our procedures, so we believe that we are already working very hard to address the areas of concern raised by the committee," he said.

There have been about 800 investigations into allegations of mistreatment in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. delegation told the panel. The Defense Department took action against more than 250 service personnel, with 89 of those convicted at courts-martial.

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Associated Press writers Terence Hunt in Washington and Sam Cage and Bradley S. Klapper in Geneva contributed to this report.