[JURIST] Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture [official website], on Tuesday called for unrestricted inspections of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. The UN plans to send inspectors to Guantanamo on December 6 for a report that Nowak's team is due to complete by the end of the year, but Nowak says "if the United States does not accept an unconditional inspection, we will not go." Nowak contrasted US refusal to grant unconditional access to detainees with China's grant of free access to the inspectors. So far the UN has made several concessions to the US military, such as limiting the inspection to one day instead of three and reducing the number of inspectors from five to three. Nowak's team will compile the report regardless of visiting Guantanamo and plans to present the report to the UN in March. AFP has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Rumsfeld defends prohibiting UN interviews with Guantanamo detainees
• UN investigators decline Gitmo invitation unless detainees can be interviewed
• UN human rights experts invited to Guantanamo