UN Comm'n: Close Guantanamo
by TChris
It's time to close Guantanamo. The prisoners detained there should be released or placed on trial. So says a report (pdf) issued by inspectors for the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
It focused in particular on the force-feeding of inmates on conducting hunger strikes, which is said was both a violation of human rights and of medical ethics, and of the use of interrogation techniques that go beyond what international law permits.
"The confusion with regard to authorized and unauthorized interrogation techniques is particularly alarming," it said.
Guantanamo is an embarrassment to the United States, a stain on the country's reputation as a guardian of human rights. It should be closed for that reason, if no other.
The report cited a long list of what it called human rights abuses, including:
- the inability of suspects to challenge their captivity before a judicial body that meets international standards, which "amounts to arbitrary detention."
- a hearing system in which the executive branch of the United States government acts as judge, prosecutor and defense counsel for detainees, which constitutes "serious violations of the right to a fair trial."
- Attempts by the United States administration to redefine torture to allow interrogation techniques "that would not be permitted under the internationally accepted definition of torture."
- Authorized interrogation techniques, particularly if used together, that "amount to degrading treatment" in violation of an international treaty banning torture.
- "The general conditions of detention, in particular the uncertainty about the length of detention and prolonged solitary confinement, amount to inhuman treatment."
- "The excessive violence used in many cases during transportation," and "force-feeding of detainees on hunger strike must be assessed as amounting to torture."
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