C&P
The US-led "war on terror" is behind a surge of human rights abuses around the world, according to a report by Amnesty International.
The organisation said America's offensive against global terrorism was "bankrupt of vision" and had "made the world a more dangerous place".
It said the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US still dominated the state of human rights.
Amnesty also criticised other countries for their treatment of terror suspects.
The US has rejected earlier attacks on its conduct by arguing that it respects suspects' basic rights and treats them according to the level of threat they represent.
It has refused to grant prisoner-of-war status to more than 600 detainees at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, choosing to describe them as "illegal combatants".
Fuelling violence
Amnesty's Secretary General Irene Khan said the US pursuit of security had actually made the world a more dangerous place.
"Sacrificing human rights in the name of security at home, turning a blind eye to abuses abroad and using pre-emptive military force where and when it chooses, have neither increased security nor ensured liberty," she said.
The report cites the hundreds of detainees from around 40 countries who are being held by the US without charge in Iraq, Cuba and Afghanistan.
The world should have expected the shocking photographs of Iraqi prisoners being tortured at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Ms Khan said.
"This is the logical consequence of the relentless pursuit of the war on terror since 11 September. It is the result of the US seeking to put itself outside the ambit of judicial scrutiny.
"The US has lost its high moral ground and its ability to lead on peace and elsewhere," she said.
'Excessive force'
Amnesty said coalition forces failed to live up to their obligations as the occupying power during the war on Iraq and that civilians had died as a direct consequence of the excessive force used by soldiers.
The war in Iraq, the report said, has diverted global attention from other human rights abuses around the world.
It also mentions:
Prisoners of conscience in many Middle East states
"Disappearances" carried out by Russian state agents in war-ravaged Chechnya
Unlawful killings in Nepal and Colombia
Abuses by armed groups in Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo
Torture and ill-treatment in territories under Israeli and Palestinian control
The year 2003 had also dealt a blow to the UN's vision of universal human rights, with the global body "virtually paralysed in its efforts to hold states to account", the report said.
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