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Guant�namo Bay: a human rights scandal
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Prisoners in Guant�namo Bay � US Department of Defense |
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Despite a major international outcry and expert condemnation of US government policy, hundreds of people of around 40 different nationalities remain held without charge or trial at the US Naval Base in Guant�namo Bay in Cuba, without access to any court, legal counsel or family visits. Denied their rights under international law and held in conditions which may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the detainees face severe psychological distress. There have been numerous suicide attempts.
Many of those held were captured during the international conflict in Afghanistan, from where transfers to the Naval Base began in January 2002 under harsh conditions of transportation. Others were arrested elsewhere and handed over to the US authorities. Sporadic transfers to, and releases from, the base continue, but the precise numbers, identities and nationalities of those held has never been made public.
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Remember, these are – the ones in Guant�namo Bay are killers. They don't share the same values we share
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President Bush, 20 March 2002.
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None of the detainees have been granted prisoner of war status or brought before a "competent tribunal" to determine his status, as required by Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention. The US government refuses to clarify their legal status, despite calls from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to do so. Instead, the US government labels them "enemy combatants" or "terrorists", flouting their right to be presumed innocent and illegally presuming justification for the denial of many of their most basic human rights.
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US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, has repeatedly referred to those held at Guant�namo as "hard core, well-trained terrorists", and "among the most dangerous, best-trained vicious killers on the face of the earth" and has linked them directly to the attacks of 11 September 2001.Vice President Dick Cheney has also labelled the detainees as "the worst of a very bad lot. They are very dangerous. They are devoted to killing millions of Americans." Despite these blanket allegations, several detainees have been released from the base without charge. No compensation has been offered for the many months they were illegally detained at Guant�namo.
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Prisoners in Guant�namo Bay � US Department of Defense |
In April 2002 the detainees were transferred from the small wire-mesh cages at the temporary Camp X-Ray to the confines of Camp Delta where the majority are held in maximum security blocks in cells even smaller than before, sometimes for up to 24 hours a day and with very little out-of-cell exercise time. The detainees are also subjected to repeated interrogations sometimes for hours at a time and without the presence of a lawyer, raising fears that statements may be extracted under coercion. The ICRC is the only non-governmental organization allowed access to the detainees.
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With no opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of their detention and the prospect of indefinite detention without trial in such conditions, the potential psychological impact upon those held is a major concern. The ICRC delegation has stated that it has observed a "worrying deterioration" in the mental health of a large number of the detainees, and that their psychological condition has become a "major problem". Efforts to obtain justice in the US courts have so far been unsuccessful, with the courts holding that they do not have jurisdiction over the detainees, because they are foreign nationals held outside US sovereign territory
Military commissions – A stain on US justice
In November 2001, President Bush signed a Military Order establishing trials by military commission which have the power to hand down death sentences and against whose decisions there will be no right of appeal to any court.
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Six foreign nationals held at Guant�namo have since been named as the first to be tried under the Military Order, amid mounting international concern that any trial before the military commissions would be intrinsically unfair. In addition to the lack of right to appeal, the commissions will lack independence and will restrict the right of defendants to choose their own counsel and to an effective defence. The commissions will also accept a lower standard of evidence than in ordinary courts. This could include evidence extracted under torture or coercion. Lord Steyn, a judge from the UK's highest court had said that such trials would be "a stain on United States justice".
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Soldier watching over prisoners in Guant�namo Bay � US Department of Defense |
Whilst Amnesty International has been calling for, and would welcome, releases of detainees from the base, there are also serious concerns that some may face serious human rights violations, including torture and execution, if returned to their countries. Such countries include China, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
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Amnesty International has called for the voluntary repatriation of all those detained as combatants during the international armed conflict in Afghanistan, as required under the Geneva Conventions, unless they are to be charged with criminal offences or would face serious human rights abuses if returned to their country. Any other of the Guant�namo detainees should be charged with recognizably criminal offences and tried within a reasonable time, or released, but not returned to any country where they would be at risk of torture, execution or other serious human rights abuses.