Critical

VOICES

Juan E Méndez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, tells Al Jazeera that the rule of law is the only way to fight terror. He says he cannot comment on these specific cases relating to Lebanon and Denmark.

He says only a handful of nations responded to UN request for investigations.  Himself a victim of torture, he says that the world is more accepting of torture today than when he was tortured decades ago.

However, he told us that a lot remains hidden from the days of the so-called "war on terror" and extraordinary renditions.

He calls on all countries to open up investigations into any misconduct on torture-related cases, especially Arab League states. Juan stresses that the challenge for human rights advocates is that a lot of the intelligence work takes place in secrecy.