Need to Reform UN Focus of Jurists´ Debate in Cuba

Havana, Jun 22. -The need to reform the United Nations, its view of human rights and its stance on violations of international law is the focus of debates on Wednesday by jurists from 11 countries.

The 5th International Summer School on Public International Law and the 7th Seminar-Workshop on International Humanitarian Law, which run until June 24, also will analyze the responsibility of nations and the concept of impunity.

During yesterday's session, Nestor Garcia, professor of the Cuban Higher Institute of Foreign Relations, stated that the United States is the greatest violator of international law in the world.

Washington was involved in serious scandals because of its abuse of people held in secret prisons, often with many of them confined indefinitely and without the right to a fair trial, Garcia said.

The Central Intelligence Agency has tortured inmates in those facilities with techniques such as drowning, stress positions, and sudden changes in temperature and sleep deprivation, he said.

Garcia accused the White House of violating international humanitarian law with continuous massacres of civilians in the countries it has attacked using sophisticated weapons against schools and hospitals, and moreover looting the cultural heritage of those nations.

Participants in the event said that the aggression against Libya is an open violation of international law, something specifically evident in the attempts to kill the leader of that North African nation without any kind of legal process, if one were to be required.  (Prensa Latina)