The United Nations has issued a damning condemnation of Donald Trump's policy that saw migrant children separated from their parents at the border, suggesting it "may amount to torture". 
 
 In a statement issued by the UN's Human Rights Council, experts said the president's recent executive order, ostensibly to halt the controversial separations, failed to resolve the problem and "may lead to indefinite detention of entire families in violation of international human rights standards". 
 
 “This executive order does not address the situation of those children who have already been pulled away from their parents. We call on the government of the US to release these children from immigration detention and to reunite them with their families based on the best interests of the child, and the rights of the child to liberty and family unity,” the group of 11 experts said. 
 
 “Detention of children is punitive, severely hampers their development, and in some cases may amount to torture,” the experts said. “Children are being used as a deterrent to irregular migration, which is unacceptable.” 
 
 A number of rights groups have questioned Mr Trump's order, issued on Wednesday, mostly for offering few details on how to deal with the more than 2,300 children detained by the US government since the "zero tolerance" policy was enacted by the president's administration in mid-April. 
 
 People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants 16 show all People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants 1/16 Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Theopolis Waters/Reuters 2/16 Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Washington, DC, U.S., February 16, 2017. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters 3/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants, marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 4/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 5/16 AUSTIN, TX - FEBRUARY 16: Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 6/16 Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Theopolis Waters/Reuters 7/16 Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters 8/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants, marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 9/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 10/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 11/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 12/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 13/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 14/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 15/16 High school student Kathia Suarez holds up a sign as she protests with others outside the Grayson County courthouse in downtown Sherman, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. LM Otero/AP 16/16 High school senior Vicky Sosa holds a sign outside the Grayson County courthouse in downtown Sherman, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. In an action called "A Day Without Immigrants," immigrants across the country are expected to stay home from school, work and close businesses to show how critical they are to the U.S. economy and way of life. LM Otero/AP 1/16 Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Theopolis Waters/Reuters 2/16 Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Washington, DC, U.S., February 16, 2017. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters 3/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants, marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 4/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 5/16 AUSTIN, TX - FEBRUARY 16: Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 6/16 Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Theopolis Waters/Reuters 7/16 Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters 8/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants, marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 9/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 10/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 11/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 12/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 13/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 14/16 Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty 15/16 High school student Kathia Suarez holds up a sign as she protests with others outside the Grayson County courthouse in downtown Sherman, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. LM Otero/AP 16/16 High school senior Vicky Sosa holds a sign outside the Grayson County courthouse in downtown Sherman, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. In an action called "A Day Without Immigrants," immigrants across the country are expected to stay home from school, work and close businesses to show how critical they are to the U.S. economy and way of life. LM Otero/AP 
 
 That zero tolerance policy means all adults who cross the border illegally are to be prosecuted, even those who make credible fear claims to seek asylum. The government has taken any children of individuals facing prosecution into their care while cases are processed. Mr Trump's executive order sought to end that separation, but did not indicate that adults seeking asylum would not continue to be prosecuted. 
 
 Mr Trump said on Thursday that he had ordered authorities to begin the process of re-uniting children with their parents, and the Justice Department asked a federal court for dispensation to hold children longer than the 20 days currently allowed - in order to help reunite families. 
 
 However, there are still few concrete details about how any reunifications will happen. 
 
 "The separations have been conducted without notice, information, or the opportunity to challenge them," the experts said in the statement. "The parents and children have been unable to communicate with each other. The parents have had no information about the whereabouts of their children, which is a cause of great distress. Moreover, we are deeply concerned at the long-term impact and trauma, including irreparable harm that these forcible separations have on the children". 
 
 The UN experts noted that there are exacerbating circumstances for some of the children that makes their removal from family especially damaging. Those concerns include worries about children with disabilities who may need specialised support, and that some of the children may still be breastfeeding. 
 
 The zero tolerance policy was announced earlier this year by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and the first six weeks saw those thousands of separations. 
 
 Accompanying the disclosure of the number of children who had been separated from their parents came shocking images of the facilities in which those youngsters were being held. In at least one Texas facility, children were pictured in metal cages inside of a temperature controlled facility. Politicians and the media pressed for access to the facilities to monitor the conditions there, and in some cases were denied entrance. The children in those facilities were provided with small sleeping pads, and foil blankets for warmth. 
 
 The UN condemnation comes just days after the United States withdrew its membership from the Human Rights Council, saying that the council is against Israel. 
 
 "For too long, the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias," Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said Tuesday during a speech at the State Department in Washington. She continued to say that the US had withdrawn from the council to reaffirm America's commitment to human rights, which she said "does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organisation that makes a mockery of human rights". 
 
 The vast majority of immigrants arriving in the US and facing potential separation are coming from turbulent countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. In those countries, high violent crime rates and difficult economic conditions have forced families to leave, migrating north to the US and elsewhere. ||||| GENEVA (22 June 2018) - The executive order signed by the US President on 20 June 2018 fails to address the situation of thousands of migrant children forcibly separated from their parents and held in detention at the border, UN experts* said. In addition, it may lead to indefinite detention of entire families in violation of international human rights standards, they said. 
 
 “This executive order does not address the situation of those children who have already been pulled away from their parents. We call on the Government of the US to release these children from immigration detention and to reunite them with their families based on the best interests of the child, and the rights of the child to liberty and family unity,” the experts said. 
 
 “Detention of children is punitive, severely hampers their development, and in some cases may amount to torture,” the experts said. “Children are being used as a deterrent to irregular migration, which is unacceptable.” 
 
 The UN experts have already expressed to the US Government their grave concerns over the impact of the zero-tolerance policy signed by the Attorney General on 6 April 2018. As a result of the new policy, parents travelling with their children, including asylum-seeking families, were automatically separated and subjected to criminal prosecution as a punitive deterrent from migrating to the United States. 
 
 “The separations have been conducted without notice, information, or the opportunity to challenge them. The parents and children have been unable to communicate with each other. The parents have had no information about the whereabouts of their children, which is a cause of great distress. Moreover, we are deeply concerned at the long-term impact and trauma, including irreparable harm that these forcible separations will have on the children.” 
 
 The UN experts noted that some of them are children with disabilities and need specialized support. Some have been taken from their breastfeeding mothers. 
 
 The lack of proper registration makes the tracking and ultimate reunification of these children particularly challenging. There are also legitimate fears that some children may never be reunited with their parents as they are sent to different parts of the United States while their parents may have been deported. 
 
 Most of the migrants detained are asylum seekers from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, who have fled their countries because of insecurity, violence and violations of their human rights. The vast majority of these migrants are indigenous peoples or belong to ethnic or racial groups that are categorized as non-white in the United States. Thus, the executive order’s effect on children and their families is devastation reserved largely for indigenous and other non-white migrants. 
 
 “The best interests of the child should be the paramount consideration, including in the context of migration management, and children should never be detained for reasons related to their own or their parents’ migration status,” the experts said. 
 
 The experts also expressed concern about the lack of due process guarantees for asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants, such as victims or potential victims of trafficking, who seek protection in the US, in possible violation of the principle of non-refoulement, lacking proper individual assessment, and at risk of deportations that result in further family separation. 
 
 “Migrant children need to be treated first and foremost as children. While family unity needs to be preserved at all costs, it cannot be done at the expense of detaining entire families with children. Family-based alternatives to deprivation of liberty must be adopted urgently,” the experts said. 
 
 
 
 ENDS 
 
 (*) UN experts: Felipe González Morales, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; Catalina Devandas, Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities; Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children; Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Dainius Pῡras, Special Rapporteur on the right to health; Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Seong-Phil Hong, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; Ivana Radačić , Chairperson of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice; Dubravka Šimonović, Special Rapporteur on violence against women; and E. Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. 
 
 Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity. 
 
 For further information and media requests, please contact Nekane Lavín (+41 22 917 94 02 / lavin@ohchr.org) 
 
 UN Human Rights, country page: United States of America 
 
 For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts please contact 
 
 Jeremy Laurence, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+41 22 917 9383 / jlaurence@ohchr.org) 
 
 This year, 2018, is the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN on 10 December 1948. The Universal Declaration – translated into a world record 500 languages – is rooted in the principle that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” It remains relevant to everyone, every day. In honour of the 70th anniversary of this extraordinarily influential document, and to prevent its vital principles from being eroded, we are urging people everywhere to Stand Up for Human Rights: www.standup4humanrights.org.
– The United Nations had already called the separations of immigrant children from their parents at the US border "arbitrary and unlawful," and now the intergovernmental group is labeling them something else: possible torture. Per the Independent, the UN's human rights arm issued a statement Friday noting that the executive order President Trump signed Wednesday to address the issue of the separations didn't go far enough, notably in reuniting children who've already been pulled away from their parents. "We call on the Government of the US to release these children from immigration detention and to reunite them with their families based on the best interests of the child, and the rights of the child to liberty and family unity," the experts cited in the statement say. The best interests of the child, those experts add, aren't being served by separating them from their parents, especially kids who have special needs or are still breastfeeding. "Detention of children is punitive, severely hampers their development, and in some cases may amount to torture," the experts say. "Children are being used as a deterrent to irregular migration, which is unacceptable." Other concerns include that asylum seekers may not be getting a fair shake in applying for help, and that messy red tape means it may be difficult, if not impossible, to reunite all the separated families. The UN experts also aren't on board with keeping families together but detained. "While family unity needs to be preserved at all costs, it cannot be done at the expense of detaining entire families with children," the experts note. "Family-based alternatives to deprivation of liberty must be adopted urgently."