Marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon roundly denounced torture and called on all countries to ratify the international treaty that bans it.

Ban said, "Let us speak with one voice against the perpetrators of torture, and for all who suffer at their hands...And let us build a better, more humane world for all people everywhere."

The Convention against Torture went into force twenty years ago, yet, as Ban said, "even after two decades, this instrument falls well short of universal ratification."

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