U.S. criticized over human rights record

GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- The United States, during its first review before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva faced calls Friday, to investigate its torture links and abolish the death penalty.

The majority of countries at the 47-member council called on Washington to improve its human rights record.

Allies including Britain, Switzerland and Belgium urged the U.S. government to halt and eventually abolish the death penalty. France and Ireland demanded that U.S. President Barack Obama follow through on his promise to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Countries called on Washington to ratify key human rights treaties and pointed out problems with mistreatment of migrants and racial disparities in education, access to healthcare and the criminal justice system.

Russia urged Washington to investigate allegations that U.S. agents tortured terror suspects at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Let there be no doubt, the United States does not and will not torture," U.S. State Department legal adviser Harold Koh said before the 47-member council in a bid to defend the U.S. human rights records in the face of much fiercer attacks from diplomatic foes such as Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

Koh added Obama's commitment to close Guantanamo was unchanged but pointed out that "the task is complex." Obama "cannot do it alone," Koh said.

Forty people have been executed in the United States this year, Human Rights Watch says, with 48 people still imprisoned in Guantanamo.

The human rights criticism comes a day after The Washington Post reported that former U.S. President George W. Bush personally approved the waterboarding of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

"The United States wasn't defensive in its responses but it also refused to budge from the status quo," Antonio Ginatta, U.S. advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "U.S. officials were often reduced to restating current practices that grossly violate human rights, like the death penalty, poor prison conditions and sentencing youth offenders to life without parole."

The group lauded the United States for having a town hall-style meeting -- the first ever convened by a nation -- that enabled human rights group to engage with officials from the United States over its human rights record.

Established in 2006, the U.N. review provides a chance to draw attention to, and make recommendations about, human rights violations in all UN member states.

States under review submit written reports concerning the human rights situation in their country and respond to the questions and recommendations put forward by other U.N. member states. Every U.N. member undergoes such reviews every four years.