Human Rights Abuses continue at Guantanamo Bay

The first UN investigator allowed inside the notorious US prison at Guantanamo Bay said the 30 remaining detainees in the facility are facing ongoing, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, breaches international law.

UN Special Rapporteur, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, issued a report on the facility and told reporters in New York that significant improvements have been made at Guantanamo since torture at the prison was exposed but stressed that the 30 men who remain are living with their past experiences.

I observed that after two decades of custody, the suffering of those detained is profound, and it's ongoing.

Every single detainee I met with lives with the unrelenting harms that follow from systematic practices of rendition, torture and arbitrary detention.

UN Special Rapporteur, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin

• Guantanamo Bay rights Abuses.
  

  Gitmo human rights abuses

  A UN expert has slammed the treatment of inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison by the United States

The UN inspector reserved some of her harshest criticism for the fact that 19 of the 30 detainees have never been charged with any crime, a number of whom have been held in the military camp for two decades.

She said their situation was a matter of profound concern.

The problem was compounded by the post 911 CIA torture program, which has become a roadblock for some of the detainees going to trial.

The UN inspector said the continued internment of some of the men stems from the unwillingness of the authorities to face the consequences of the torture and other ill treatment to which the detainees were subjected, not from any ongoing threat they are believed to pose.

The UN inspector said that the use of torture had also been a betrayal of the rights of victims and called for an apology and guarantees that the abuses would not happen again.

She also said the detainees past experiences of torture live with them in the present, without any obvious end in sight, since they have not received any adequate torture rehabilitation to date.

The remaining 30 detainees still face harsh treatment, including constant surveillance, forced removal from their cells, and, the unjust use of restraints.

• A look at the US legacy of abuse at Guantanamo as calls grow for closure.
  

  A look at US legacy of abuse at Guantanamo as calls grow for its closure

  Since the infamous Guantanamo detention facility was set up by the George Bush administration in Cuba in 2002, after the invasion of Afghanistan and before the invasion of Iraq, it has been synonymous with abuse, torture and injustice.

Monday marked the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

The US State Department issued a statement declaring that the US reaffirms its condemnation of torture wherever and whenever it occurs. And it stands in solidarity with victims and survivors of torture around the world.

The statement comes as the Biden administration is seeking the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for his role in exposing US war crimes.

Assange has been held in London's Belmarsh Prison without having been charged since April 2019.

Professor Nils Melzer, Former Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (2016 - 2022), has determined that Assange's treatment amounts to prolonged psychological torture.

• US-held captives in Guantanamo suffer 'accelerated ageing': ICRC
  

  US-held captives in Guantanamo suffer 'accelerated ageing': ICRC

  A Red Cross official says US-held captives in the Guantanamo military prison and torture facility show signs of "accelerated ageing."

The US government gave its response to the UN report in a one page letter from the ambassador to the Human Rights Council, Michelle Taylor.

It said that the US believed that all UN member states should be willing to open themselves to the scrutiny of outside observers.

Taylor added that the US was confident that the conditions of confinement at Guantanamo Bay are humane and reflect the United States respect for, and protection of, human rights for all who are within our custody.

In May the Guardian published a series of detailed drawings and writings by Abu Zubaydah, which gives the most comprehensive account yet seen of the torture to which he and other detainees were subjected by the CIA.

Zubaydah is known as a forever prisoner. He is being held at Guantanamo having never been charged and with no prospect of release.

• Never charged, Guantanamo’s oldest inmate freed after two decades
  

  Never charged, Guantanamo’s oldest inmate freed after nearly two decades

  The oldest inmate at the infamous Guantanamo prison is released without trial after nearly two decades.

Many of the individuals who were tortured under the CIA program have endured severe ongoing psychological and physical damage and trauma as a result.

The Guantanamo Bay Prison was set up in 2002 by US President George W. Bush, and held about 800 inmates at its peak before the numbers started to shrink.

President Joe Biden had promised to close the facility, but has yet to present a plan to do so.

Human Rights Advocates are increasingly frustrated with Biden for failing to deliver on his pledge to close the prison, leaving inmates languishing in the notorious offshore detention center with no end in sight.

• Guantanamo: Extraordinary rendition, torture, eternal detention
  

  Guantanamo: Extraordinary rendition, torture, eternal detention

  Guantanamo, which at its peak held over 700 inmates, has been synonymous with human rights abuses perpetrated by the US government in the name of the war on terrorism.

The case of America's hypocritical actions in the field of human rights is something that has attracted the attention not only of international critics, but also of American experts.

America's blatant crimes against humanity, including the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and the brutal torture in Abu Ghraib, Bagram and Guantanamo Bay prisons are not hidden from anyone.

And, of course, the United States has the most inhumane human rights record with its full support of Israel.

• Human rights groups renew calls for closing Guantanamo Bay prison.
  

  Human rights groups renew calls for closing Guantanamo Bay prison

  Nearly 160 international rights groups have called on the United States to close down its detention center in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay.

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