United Nations Radio

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights told journalists that the absolute ban on torture is becoming a casualty of the war on terror.

Louise Arbour was referring to secret detentions, the handover of prisoners without adequate safeguards and other practices which she said would create a world in which "we are neither safe nor free". She called on governments to be transparent and to uphold the ban on torture:

"I don't think it's open to those who purport to act in our names basically to ask for a blank check - just trust us, there are very bad things happening out there, we'll handle it and the less you know the better. I think it's completely inappropriate in democratic societies."

But the United States ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, has responded that the High Commissioner's apparent criticism of the United States was inappropriate:

"I think it is inappropriate and illegitimate for an international civil servant to second-guess the conduct that we're engaged in, in the war on terror, with nothing more as evidence than what she reads in the newspaper."

Ms. Arbour has said the right and duty of governments to protect their citizens from attacks was not in dispute, but that the right to be free from torture was not subject to any limitation.