UNITED NATIONS, June 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used Friday's International Day in Support of Victims of Torture to call for an end to torture.
Ban said in a statement released by the United Nations in New York no circumstance justifies torture.
"I urge all United Nations member states that have not yet done so to ratify and implement in good faith the Convention against Torture," Ban said. "Let us step up the fight against torture and cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment and punishment, wherever they occur."
A total of 146 nations have ratified the convention since its adoption in 1984.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said many countries that ratified the anti-torture document still use torture methods, "some of them on a daily basis."
Others, she said, enable torture by sending back asylum-seekers to countries they know carry out torture.
She said she welcomed Obama's decisions to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison and ban on interrogation methods that amount to torture and contravene international law.
Obama said in a statement his administration is committed to taking concrete actions against torture and help its victims.
"The United States will continue to cooperate with governments and civil society organizations throughout the international community in the fight to end torture," he said. "To this end, I have requested today that the Department of State solicit information from all of our diplomatic missions around the world about effective policies and programs for stopping torture and assisting its victims so that we and our civil society partners can learn from what others have done."
