The U.N. Human Rights Commission on Thursday voted to appoint an expert to examine possible abuses arising from governments' actions to fight terrorism. The commission passed a resolution by consensus, calling on governments "to uphold and protect the dignity of individuals and their fundamental freedoms, as well as democratic practices and the rule of law, while countering terrorism." Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said that the most important issue at this year's six-week session of the commission is the threat to human rights posed by governments' anti-terror campaigns. At the start of the meeting, they called on the commission to condemn treatment of detainees by the United States and to ask that Washington give independent monitors access to terrorism suspects. --more 1302 Local Time 1002 GMT
