In a United Nations report, a special rapporteur condemns the treatment of detainees in the US Guantanamo prison camp as “cruel, inhuman and degrading”. She demands that the camp be closed.
According to a United Nations special rapporteur, the treatment of the remaining inmates in the US Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba is still “cruel, inhuman and degrading”. “I have observed that after two decades of imprisonment, the suffering of the detainees is deep and enduring,” said Fionnuala Ni Aolain, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the fight against terrorism.
The use of torture and kidnappings of suspected perpetrators and their accomplices by the United States in the years following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 violated international human rights norms, Ni Aolain told journalists in New York on Monday when presenting her report to the UN Human Rights Council . She called for the notorious camp to be closed.
Washington contradicts “numerous statements”
The Irish law professor had previously visited the prison camp as the first UN special rapporteur – with official approval from the United States. She thanked the United States for the permission and stressed that she was given full access. They also got “significant improvements” compared to previous status reports.
In a letter of reply to the Human Rights Council, the United States stated that the special counsel’s findings “represented solely her own” point of view. Washington contradicts “numerous factual and legal statements in important respects” in the report.
Still 34 detainees in Guantánamo
In February, the US Department of Defense said that more than two decades after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, 34 prisoners are still being held in the Cuban prison camp. It was built after the terrorist attacks during the administration of then Republican President George W. Bush to hold suspected Islamist terrorists without trial.
Almost 800 people were detained at one point in the camp, which is located at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Human rights organizations have long been demanding the closure – after the presentation of the UN report, Amnesty International reiterated this demand.