Related: U.S. rejects UN's call to close Guantanamo prison

   GENEVA, Feb. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States committed serious human rights violations at its detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the United Nations said on Thursday in a report.

    People held at Guantanamo Bay are entitled to challenge the legality of their detention before a judicial body and to be released if their detention is found to lack a proper legal basis, said the 54-page report.

    "This right is currently being violated, and the continuing detention of all persons held at Guantanamo Bay amounts to arbitrary detention in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights (ICCPR)," it said.

    According to experts who drafted the report, the executive branch of the U.S. government operates as judge, prosecutor and defense counsel of the detainees, which constitutes serious violations of various guarantees of the right to a fair trial.

    Attempts by the U.S. government to redefine "torture" in order to allow certain interrogation techniques are of utmost concern, the report said, adding that the confusion over authorized and unauthorized questioning methods over the past few years was particularly alarming, the report added.

    Besides degrading treatment, the general conditions of detention, in particular the uncertainty about the length of imprisonment and prolonged solitary confinement, amount to inhuman treatment and violate the right to health, the report said. It went on to say that the right of detainees to be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person was also being violated.

    Among its recommendations, the report said terrorism suspects should be detained in accordance with criminal procedure that respects the safeguards enshrined in relevant international law.

    Accordingly, the U.S. government should either expeditiously bring all Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial or release them without further delay.

    It also called on the U.S. to close down the Guantanamo facilities and to refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

    The investigators also requested full and unrestricted access to the Guantanamo Bay facilities, including private interviews with detainees, which have been refused by the U.S..

    The report was drafted by five independent investigators of the UN Commission on Human Rights following an 18-month joint study into the situation of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

    Its findings were based on information from the U.S. government, interviews with former Guantanamo Bay detainees currently residing or detained in France, Spain and the United Kingdom, and responses from lawyers acting on behalf of some current detainees.

    It also relied on information provided by non-governmental organizations or declassified official U.S. documents and media reports. Enditem