originally published 5 March 2010
Twelve weeks ago, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a speech proclaiming the USA’s commitment to human rights. When injustice anywhere is ignored, she said, justice everywhere is denied.
Justice denied for one day is bad enough.
It is now more than 400 days since President Barack Obama ordered his administration to resolve each and every case of the detainees held at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, and to close the detention facilities there “as soon as practicable” and in any case no later than 365 days after his order. Today more than 180 detainees remain held at the base, with an interagency review having apparently concluded that nearly 50 of them should continue to be held in indefinite detention without charge or trial.
Amnesty International reiterates that the Guantánamo detainees must immediately be brought to fair trials – which should be before civilian courts not military commissions – or released. Where detainees for release cannot be returned to their home countries because of the risk of human rights violations they would face and no other appropriate state is willing to receive them immediately, they should be released in the USA, at least until another solution is found.
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