The past month has been a relatively good one for the U.S. policy on torture. The military transferred seven detainees out of Guantánamo Bay and the White House forced out the defense secretary who admitted reluctance in approving detainee releases in the past. Meanwhile, Senator Dianne Feinstein is assuring reporters that the release of the Senate intelligence committee’s report on the CIA torture program is only days away. And appearing before the U.N. Committee Against Torture, the U.S. delegation unequivocally affirmed, “torture and cruel inhuman and degrading treatment are prohibited at all times and in all places,” including places outside of U.S. borders, like Guantánamo Bay.

The statement to the U.N. was celebrated as a positive shift away from Bush-administration policy, but it only addresses part of the U.S.’s history of failure to adhere to the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Article 14 of the treaty requires signatory states to ensure that victims of torture have access to redress and compensation. In November, the U.N. Committee Against Torture reviewed U.S. compliance with the treaty and asked the American delegation how many victims of torture had successfully obtained “effective remedy” for their treatment.

State Department Legal Adviser Mary McLeod effectively dodged the question. In lieu of providing actual numbers (there is no known case in which a torture victim has been financially compensated by the U.S.), she explained, “Although Article 14 of the Convention contemplates an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation for victims of torture, it would be anomalous under the law of war to provide individuals detained as enemy belligerents with a judicially enforceable individual right to a claim for monetary compensation against the detaining power for alleged unlawful conduct.”

Essentially, because the U.S. picked people up for fighting with or alongside the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or its associated forces, law of war says they aren’t eligible for compensation. There are a few problems with her analysis. Being an enemy of the U.S. does not preclude an individual from being a victim of torture. It is illegal to torture anyone—anti-American terrorists included. “If you admit you committed a violation of fundamental norm, a treaty breach, obligation says you have to remedy it,” said Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the executive editor of Just Security. “That’s the heart of the contract, the heart of the Convention Against Torture.”

Not only is it illegal to torture enemy fighters, but many of the U.S. victims of torture were not actually part of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or any mutation of either group—they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.