U.N. experts condemn Guantánamo Captives’ Treatment
‘Inhuman and degrading treatment of the last 30 remaining detainees
Treatment of the final 30 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, according to UN rights experts reporting on their first visit to the US military jail on Monday, includes nearly continual surveillance, harsh isolation, and limited family access.
Detainees’ fundamental rights and freedoms were violated, according to UN Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ni Aolain, who visited the jail on the American naval facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Detainees have been subjected to a litany of maltreatment, including forced cell extractions, poor medical and mental health care, and prolonged incarceration, according to Ni Aolain.
She noted in a press conference that the inmates have had insufficient access to family members, both in terms of in-person visits and phone conversations.
This “amounts in my assessment to ongoing cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law,” she said.
The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, Ni Aolain, and a team of other rights experts finally made it to Guantanamo in February after 20 years of trying.
She said in her introduction to the team’s report that Washington had not yet addressed the most egregious rights violation concerning the detainees: their secret seizure and transfer to Guantanamo in the early 2000s (also known as “rendition”), with many of them enduring extensive torture at the hands of US operatives in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
For years, their military trials have been delayed due to concerns that they cannot be given fair trials if they have been tortured.
Ni Aolain said that this was also unfair to the victims of the September 11 attacks.
According to the UN Special Rapporteur, “the single most significant barrier to fulfilling victims’ rights to justice and accountability is the systematic rendition and torture at multiple (including black sites) and thereafter at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.”
She did, however, express gratitude to Vice President Joe Biden’s administration for being so accommodating in letting her group visit Guantanamo to investigate conditions for the once-numerous 800 inmates there.
Those words, “few states exhibit that kind of courage,” were hers.
However, she insisted that closing the prison, which is not yet part of the US judicial system, “remains a priority.”
The US government “must ensure accountability for all violations of international law,” she added, referring to victims of terrorism as well as victims of US counterterrorism practises, including current and former detainees.
She argued that accountability entails apologising to “all victims,” providing them with adequate treatment, and compensating them in full.
The United States did not agree with all of Ni Aolain’s assessments, as stated in a letter from US representative to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva Michele Taylor to Ni Aolain on the report.
Detainees will be treated with “safety and humanity,” Taylor stated.
