Six years after the government's last clarification on its definition of torture, the U.N. Committee Against Torture, which is currently convening in Geneva, demanded the country explain what it plans to do about allegations of torture and internal violence, from CIA "black sites" to the Michael Brown shooting.

The U.S. announced on Wednesday it would clarify its stance on torture, officially retracting a policy dating back to the George W. Bush administration that argued the torture convention's rules only applied within U.S. borders, according to The Associated Press.

In a statement, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan announced the U.S. policy on torture had changed and it would apply outside U.S. borders.

"The U.S. delegation will underscore that all U.S. personnel are legally prohibited under international and domestic law from engaging in torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment at all times, and in all places," the statement said. "... the United States pledges to continue working with our partners in the international community toward the achievement of the Convention's ultimate objective: a world without torture."

Meehan added three points that highlighted the U.S. government's new stance.

The first one reiterates the country's stance on torture abroad, saying "that U.S. obligations under Article 16 (as well as under other provisions of the Convention with the same jurisdictional language) apply in places outside the United States that the U.S. government controls as a governmental authority."

The second point explains that the U.S. will abide by Article 15 of the Convention in regards of Guantanamo Bay detainees as well as others detained in "military commissions." Article 15 ensures that statements and evidence obtained under torture are inadmissible in legal proceedings.

In the third point, Meehan explains the U.S. will continue to apply the Convention's rules even during times of war.

According to AP, the U.N. panel, comprising 10 delegates, grilled the U.S. attorneys, demanding answers concerning black sites and police brutality. Legal experts, former Guantanamo Bay detainee Murat Kurnaz and the parents of Michael Brown all provided private testimonies to the panel.

However, the U.N. was not the only one advocating for the Obama administration to amend its stance on torture. Six years ago, President Barack Obama reversed the Bush administration's interpretation of the torture convention.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) asked the administration in a letter to continue in this path in a letter dated Oct. 31, according to the Washington Post.

"It is crucial that the United States signals to the world that we have put the dark chapter of the Bush administration's torture program behind us," they wrote, "and are not seen as attempting to leave open the possibility of using so-called 'enhanced' interrogation techniques ever again."

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