UN HR Experts Condemn Incommunicado Detentions at GUANTANAMO
By Victor Comras
Six UN human rights experts, including Lela Zerrougui, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights issued a Joint Statement, February 4, 2005 expressing their serious concerns with the treatment of prisoners at the United States Naval Base in Guantnamo Bay. They complained that many of the inmates are completing their third year of virtually incommunicado detention, without legal assistance or information as to the expected duration of their detention, and in conditions of detention that, according to numerous observers, amount to inhuman and degrading treatment.
In addition to Chairperson Zerrougui, the Statement was also signed by Stephen J. Toope, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the Commission; Manfred Nowak, the Commissions Special Rapporteur on torture; Paul Hunt, the Commissions Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; Leandro Despouy, the Commissions Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, and Cherif Bassiouni, Independent Expert appointed by the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan. Their full statement can be read here.
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