January 11, 2012
\nReposted from: https:\/\/www.amnesty.org<\/p>\n
The failure of the US government to close the detention facility at Guant\u00e1namo Bay is leaving a toxic legacy for human rights, Amnesty International said on the 10th anniversary of the first detainees being transferred to this notorious US prison. In a report published ahead of the anniversary, Guant\u00e1namo: A Decade of Damage to Human Rights, Amnesty International highlights the unlawful treatment of Guant\u00e1namo detainees and outlines the reasons why the detention centre continues to represent an attack on human rights.\u00a0 \u201cGuant\u00e1namo has come to symbolize 10 years of a systematic failure by the USA to respect human rights in its response to the 9\/11 attacks. The US government disregarded human rights from day one of the Guant\u00e1namo detentions. As we move into year 11 in the life of the detention facility, this failure continues,\u201d said Rob Freer, Amnesty International\u2019s researcher on the USA. Despite President Obama\u2019s pledge to close the Guant\u00e1namo detention facility by 22 January 2010, 171 men were being held there in mid-December 2011. At least 12 of those transferred to Guant\u00e1namo on 11 January 2002 were still held there. One of them is serving a life sentence after being convicted by a military commission in 2008. None of the other 11 has been charged. The Obama administration \u2013 indeed large parts of all three branches of the federal government \u2013 have adopted the global \u201cwar\u201d framework devised under the Bush administration. The administration asserted in January 2010 that four dozen of the Guant\u00e1namo detainees could neither be prosecuted nor released, but should remain in indefinite military detention without charge or criminal trial under the USA\u2019s unilateral interpretation of the law of war. \u201cUntil the USA addresses these detentions as a human rights issue, the legacy of Guant\u00e1namo will live on whether or not the detention facility there is closed down,\u201d said Rob Freer. The Guant\u00e1namo detention facility, which is located on the US naval base in Cuba, became a symbol of torture and other ill-treatment after it was opened four months after the 9\/11 attacks. Among the detainees still held there today include individuals who were subjected by the USA to torture and enforced disappearance prior to being transferred to Guant\u00e1namo. There has been little or no accountability for these crimes under international law committed in a program of secret detention operated under presidential authority. The US government has systematically blocked attempts by former detainees to seek redress for such violations. In 10 years, only one of the 779 detainees held at the base has been transferred to the USA for prosecution in an ordinary federal court. Others have faced unfair trials by military commission.\u00a0 The administration is currently intending to seek the death penalty against six of the detainees at such trials. The Obama administration has blamed its failure to close the Guant\u00e1namo detention facility on Congress, which has indeed failed to ensure US compliance with international human rights principles in this context.\u00a0 \u201cUnder international law, domestic law and politics may not be invoked to justify failure to comply with treaty obligations. It is an inadequate response for one branch of government to blame another for a country\u2019s human rights failure. International law demands that solutions be found, not excuses,\u201d said Rob Freer.<\/p>\n