20 years on, Guantánamo still ‘a stain on US govt’s commitment to rule of law’: Experts
A group of independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council has recently condemned the continued operation of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.
They termed it as a site of "unparalleled notoriety" and "a stain on the US Government's commitment to the rule of law," according to UN News.
In a statement released on Monday to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the facility, the experts called on the US, a newly-elected member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, to close Guantánamo.
In the statement, they also declared that two decades of "practising arbitrary detention without trial accompanied by torture or ill treatment is simply unacceptable for any government, particularly a government which has a stated claim to protecting human rights".
The detention camp, sited within a US naval base on the island, was set up in 2002 to house prisoners captured in Afghanistan, and at its peak housed some 780 people, most of whom were detained without trial.
Of the 39 detainees still held at Guantánamo, only nine have been charged, or convicted of crimes. Between 2002 and 2021, nine detainees died in custody, two from natural causes and seven reportedly committed suicide. None had been charged or convicted of a crime.
The experts called on the US to close the site, return detainees home or to safe third countries, while respecting the principle of non-refoulement, which means that they cannot be sent to a country in which they could be subject to persecution.
They also called for reparations to be made for tortured and arbitrarily detained prisoners, and for those who authorised and engaged in torture to be held accountable, as required under international law.
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