Fifty-seven countries signed the U.N treaty but others like the U.S, Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy, refused to sign.
At the treaty signing in Paris, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy commented, “Our American friends were naturally invited to this ceremony; unfortunately, they weren’t able to join us.”
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance calls for nations to adopt an “absolute ban” on secret detentions and provides for the tracing of the whereabouts of the “disappeared.” It also obliges each state party to ensure that victims of renditions and secret detention have the right to reparations.
This treaty is mainly in response to the American practice of 'extraordinary rendition', whereby alleged terrorism suspects are abducted by American intelligence agents and transfered through other European countries to third world nations where they can be tortured and held indefinitely. Last September, President Bush admitted to the existence of a network of secret prisons run by the CIA across Europe and insisted they would continue to operate. Many of the nations that refused to sign the treaty are know to have co-conspired with the Americans in these secret operations.
