Constant surveillance, limited access to families, isolation. The treatment of the last 30 detainees in Guantanamo is “cruel, inhuman and degrading”, denounced a UN expert after the first visit to the US detention center in Cuba.
After decades of unsuccessful lawsuits by independent experts from human rights of the UN, the special rapporteur for human rights and the fight against terrorism, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, was able to visit the prison last February.
His report published on Monday describes, despite “important improvements” in the detention center, “almost constant surveillance, forced removals from cells, excessive use of restraints, structural health deficiencies, inadequate access to families and arbitrary detentions characterized by violations of the right to a fair trial.
The totality of all practices and negligence (…) have cumulative aggravating effects for the dignity, freedom and fundamental rights of each detainee, which is equivalent, for me, to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, according to the international law,” he said at a press conference.
Closing this center is a priority,” he added.
Independent UN human rights experts have tried to obtain permits to access this military prison, located in the southeast of Cuba, since it opened in 2002 to house “war on terror” detainees what book USA after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The prison, which came to house 800 “prisoners of war”, was targeted by the international community for the alleged violations of human rights, illegal detentions and torture that would have been carried out in it.
Therefore, they insisted on closing the prison.
In a letter accompanying the report, the United States expressed its “disagreement” with “many statements” in the document, which “does not reflect the official position of the United Nations”, in which it ensures that the detainees receive medical care and can communicate regularly. with their families.
The ambassador to the Human Rights Council, Michèle Taylor, noted that the Joe Biden administration “is actively working to find suitable places for the remaining detainees.”
In addition to calling for the US government to “account for all its violations of international law,” the rapporteur stresses the “importance of asking for forgiveness, comprehensive care, and guarantees that it will not be repeated for all victims.”
With information from AFP.
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