{"id":49800,"date":"2022-06-26T10:14:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T17:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=49800"},"modified":"2022-06-27T10:14:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T17:14:55","slug":"international-day-in-support-of-victims-of-torture-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=49800","title":{"rendered":"International Day in Support of Victims of Torture"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>06\/26\/2022 08:36 AM EDT<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n<p>Today, we solemnly observe the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, and in so doing, the United States reaffirms our condemnation of torture no matter where or by whom it is perpetrated. \u00a0Torture is not only an unacceptable violation of human rights; it is a crime under international and U.S. law. \u00a0As we condemn this horrific crime, we also affirm\u00a0the humanity\u00a0of torture survivors around the world\u00a0and note our respect for their\u00a0dignity.<\/p>\n<p>The United States is one of 173 states that are parties to\u202fthe Convention against\u202fTorture and Other Cruel, Inhuman,\u202for Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which entered into force in 1987.\u00a0 Yet despite this near universal condemnation, torture and other violations of human rights are still perpetrated around the world, often against\u202fpolitical opponents,\u202fmembers of\u202fmarginalized populations,\u202fprisoners of war and other detainees, human rights defenders, and\u202fthose who\u202fvoice opinions\u202fthat\u202fcertain governments do not like.\u00a0 So long as any person anywhere suffers from torture, our pursuit of accountability will continue, as will our support for torture survivors.<\/p>\n<p>As outlined in our most recent periodic report to the United Nations\u2019 Committee Against Torture last September,\u00a0the United States remains committed to the Convention against Torture. \u00a0We acknowledge that we must confront our own shortcomings and mistakes and uphold U.S. values.\u00a0 We take seriously our obligations as a State Party, including to prevent and punish torture, and not to expel, return, or extradite anyone to a country where they would be tortured. \u00a0We welcomed the election last October of Todd Buchwald as an independent expert on the Committee and\u00a0support the Committee\u2019s work\u00a0to promote compliance of treaty obligations by parties to the Convention.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. law prohibits the provision of our assistance to any foreign government security force units credibly implicated in torture.\u00a0 In addition, as the largest contributor to the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, we continue to support rehabilitation and justice programs to help victims around the world transition from horror to healing.\u00a0 We also directly support the needs of survivors and their calls for truth, through programs like the Survivors of Torture Initiative.<\/p>\n<p>The United States will continue to strive to advance the Convention against Torture\u2019s goal of a world free from torture. \u00a0Perpetrators of torture should know that we will vigilantly pursue accountability for torture, other human rights violations and abuses, and violations of international humanitarian law.\u00a0\u00a0As long as\u202ftorture occurs, the United States will not waver\u202fin its commitment to eliminate\u202fthis human rights violation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>06\/26\/2022 08:36 AM EDT Antony J.&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49801,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49800\/revisions\/49801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}