[JURIST] Human Rights Watch [official website] said in a new report [text] Friday that governments in both North America and Europe have negligently relied upon promises of humane treatment in order to transfer terror suspects to states with well-established records of torture. The 91-page report entitled Stiil at Risk claims that countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Canada are using the promises of nations such as Egypt and Morocco to skirt their own legal obligations:

• the US is cited for several "renditons" of prisoners to third countries, where they have alleged torture and abuse
• Canada is cited for its security-certificate procedure under which terror suspects can be tried using secret evidence and deported to countries where torture is believed to be common, as long as that country vows not to abuse that particular person.
• the UK is cited for seeking to deport suspected terrorists to Algeria and Morocco where torture is rife.

Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany are also named. The HRW report points to information released by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, and the Council of Europe Commissioner on Human Rights to prove that the countries in question have been warned that the use of assurances is eroding the global torture ban [Convention text]. Read the Human Rights Watch press release on the report here. AP has more.