Legal assignment
Guantanamo bay detention centre
a. Identify and describe a contemporary human rights issue
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp (also known as GITMO), is a US detention facility located on the coast of Guantanamo Bay in south-eastern Cuba, on the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base. It was built in 2002 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent military operations in Afghanistan. The detention centre was used to house Muslim militants and suspected terrorists captured by the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Iraq war. Many of the detainees were detained infinitely without a trial and it has been under controversy and scrutiny of the worldwide public after accusations of …show more content…
Since the September 11 attacks 779 people have been held at the detention Centre. Many of those people have been relocated and given proper trials and now, only 60 remain. The detention Centre has been closed and no other prisoners are to be taken there. However, it has taken parliament 7 years since Obama had first announced to close the detention Centre as congress has not been able to decide to close the camp. Prisoners have been unlawfully imprisoned at the camp for as long as 15 years, without having any proper convictions held against them. The NBC newspaper article, Guantanamo Bay: Obama Announces Plan to Close Controversial Detention Facility (NBC, 2016), conveys the happiness over Obama’s announcement to change the detention facility. In an interview, Obama remarks that "Keeping this facility open is contrary to our values," …. “It undermines our standing in the world”. Therefore, Obamas actions have been fairly effective as the detention centre is now closed and only has 60 inmates. However, it has taken a long time and people have been unlawfully imprisoned with no convictions held against them and subjected to …show more content…
Amnesty International publically denounced the treatment of the detainees in October 2004. A report from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), that occurred in 2007, revealed that the interrogation techniques used were torture. However, this information was not made public until March 2009 as the United States rejected the conclusions at the time.
On April the 11th 2013, 25 different NGO organizations signed a letter to Obama pleeing for him to close the detention Centre. There was concern over the hunger strikes and the lives of the inmates. This included NGO’s such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Witness against torture.
Reprieve, is a NGO that works and helps the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. They have lawyers who currently represent 8 prisoners and help several others. They have freed over 70 men from wrongful detention and help prisoners reunite with their families, rebuild their lives and find medical