On the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, it seems appropriate to celebrate the possibility that the United States could firm up its compliance with another UN human rights mechanism, the 1984 Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is reportedly considering launching an investigation of the use of torture during the Bush Administration, a step that President Obama had been loathe to take.
IntLawGrrls’ Beth Van Schaack has much more on why the U.S. should be fully implementing the Torture Convention, so I’ll just add my agreement that this is a good step both for international justice and for the United States itself. The politics of an investigation will hopefully fade eventually, as this should be far more an issue of policy — of making sure the United States is abiding by conventions it has agreed to — than a partisan tactic.