In a new report by the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the fight against terrorism and Human Rights, Fionnnuala Ni Aolain, it is stated that the 30 detainees who still remain in the Guantanamo prison continue to be targeted. of “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”.
The document is the result of a trip to the facility earlier this year, the first of its kind by a UN official since the facility opened in 2002. The report’s conclusion is stark: the US government should “consider immediate ways to close” the detention center.
Ni Aolain’s visit, which took place last February , included a series of meetings with lawyers and relatives of the prisoners, as well as former detainees and some of the then 34 prisoners.
Ni Aolain also spoke with the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks . The rapporteur “recognizes the different points of view within the community of victims on the legitimacy of military commissions, the use of the death penalty, and the operation of the Guantanamo detention center.”
But, in In his opinion, the use of torture by the United States now represents the “most significant barrier to fulfilling the rights of victims to justice and accountability”.
“Responsibility for the torture is also the responsibility for the Human Rights of victims and survivors,” Ni Aolain wrote in the report.
He also thanks the Biden administration for facilitating his visit, but highlights his criticism of continued violations of international law incurred by Washington.
“Several procedures of the United States government establish a structural deprivation and the breach of the rights necessary for a humane and dignified existence and constitute, at a minimum, cruel treatment , inhumane and degrading in all detention practices in Guantánamo Bay”, can be read in the report.
The document focuses on the right of detainees to health, access to family, access to justice and a fair trial, and on the long-term physical and psychological effects of torture. In each of the cases to which she agreed, the special rapporteur found significant reasons for concern.
For example, she records that “the conditions observed constitute a violation of the right to available, adequate and acceptable medical care, as part of the obligation of the State to guarantee the rights to life, not to be tortured or ill-treated, to humane treatment. of prisoners and an effective remedy. The failure of the United States government to provide rehabilitation for torture is in direct contravention of its obligations under the Convention Against Torture.”
In terms of legal rights, the report found that “the United States it failed to promote or protect the fundamental guarantees of a fair trial and seriously impeded the access of detainees to justice”. One of the detainees told Ni Aolain that while some of the material conditions in the prison have improved over time, legal conditions today are worse than ever.
The report also discusses repatriation and the resettlement of those who were released from Guantanamo and reveals that the “great majority” continued to be victims of Human Rights abuses. “For many former detainees, the current experience in their home country or in a third country simply becomes an extension of arbitrary detention at Guantánamo, with some even expressing a desire to return,” Ni Aolain wrote.
*100025 *The rapporteur spoke with former detainees and relatives of detainees who at the time of the transfer were forcibly disappeared and arbitrarily detained, enrolled in supposed rehabilitation and reintegration programs, but in reality “subject to incommunicado detention and torture and ill deals.”
Michèle Taylor, US ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council, issued a response to the report, thanking Ni Aolain but taking issue with many of her report’s findings.* 100028*
“The United States disagrees in significant respects with many statements of fact and law made by the Special Rapporteur,” Taylor wrote.
According to the ambassador, “detainees live in community and prepare meals together, receive specialized medical and psychiatric care, are given full access to legal counsel, and communicate regularly with family members.”
Under the Biden presidency, so far, 10 of the 40 detainees who were there when he took office have been released from prison, and another 16 have been released, but remain in Guantanamo.
Defenders Human Rights and former detainees welcomed the report and called on Biden to follow through on his stated goal of closing the prison and for the government to provide reparations to prisoners.
Majid Khan, a former detainee who was released in February 2003 and currently resides in Belize, stated that “I was a victim of American torture by the CIA. I survived and forgave my tormentors, and I am moving on with my life in Belize. But I’m still waiting for an apology, medical attention and other compensation.” of the closure of Guantánamo”. He added: “It makes no legal or political sense for the government to continue fighting in the courts, detaining men it no longer wants to detain, in a prison it said should be closed, in a war that is over.”
*100041 *(With information from agencies)
Guantánamo prisoner
