TRNN interviews Navi Pillay, UN Official, Who Demands Torture Accountability

Washington, DC, July 07, 2009 --(PR.com)-- A few days after the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, TRNN Senior Editor speaks to Michael Ratner, President of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, on US President Barack Obama's progress involving the accusations of torture on Bush-era senior officials.

"I suspect that we will deeply be disappointed again in President Obama's administration regarding the transparency of [the torture program]," Ratner says.

He says that the reluctance of the administration to release the documents shows fear of public pressure to prosecute the Bush-era torture conspirators as more information is released. However, Ratner says that the "benefits of releasing [the information] are outweighed by the harm they claim will occur from releasing it, the benefits being that we will finally be getting a criminal investigation that will prevent torture in the future."

Ratner refers to the comments of Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, who has pushed the United States to pursue prosecution of the senior torture conspirators.

On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Pillay said in a speech that, "[t]orture is a barbaric act. I believe that no state whose regime conducts or condones torture can consider itself civilized."

Pillay also condemned the events at Guantanamo Bay, calling what happened there "reprehensible."

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