EU Urges Anti-Torture Convention Signing

German President Horst Koehler, left, and his wife Eva Luise, center, are seen during a visit to the treatment center for victims of torture in Berlin, Monday, June 26, 2006. The girls on the right are from Angola and their father is a patient at the treatment center. (AP Photo/Franka Bruns) (Franka Bruns - AP)

The United States is among 141 signatories to the U.N. convention, which has been in place since 1984. The ban is overseen by the U.N. Committee Against Torture, which asked U.S. officials to appear before it last month to review Washington's compliance.

State Department legal adviser John B. Bellinger III, who led a 25-member U.S. delegation at the panel hearings in Geneva, said it was "legally wrong" to say Guantanamo's existence violates the U.N. convention.

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

Bush has said he wants to close Guantanamo, but is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on whether inmates can face military tribunals and is trying to figure out what to do with detainees considered extremely dangerous.

In June 2005, the EU adopted a measure prohibiting the export or import of materials whose only practical purpose is to be used to inflict torture or capital punishment.

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On the Net:

U.N. Committee Against Torture, http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/