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Posted 10:22 PM
by Mary
Closing Guantanamo may not be enough: U.N. envoy
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The next U.S. president, whether it is Barack Obama or John McCain, will likely shut down Guantanamo Bay prison camp but may decide to keep some prisoners indefinitely, a U.N. rights envoy said on Wednesday.
The prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the system for trying its detainees, has been widely condemned by human rights groups and governments around the world, including close allies of the United States, who say it does not meet international legal standards.
Both candidates seeking to succeed President George W. Bush -- Republican Sen. McCain and Democratic Sen. Obama -- have pledged to close the detention center where some 255 suspected members of al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated groups are detained. The prison once held as many as 600 detainees.
Martin Scheinin, U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the fight against terrorism, told reporters he expected the next U.S. president to swiftly follow through on his promise to close down the prison.
This will lead to the "release of those detainees who are ready for release, who have already been determined as posing no threat," said Scheinin.
It will also lead to trials for those suspected of serious crimes who have been deemed ready for trial.
"I would expect the trials to be taken to (U.S.) federal courts," Scheinin said, adding that he was confident the suspects would receive fair trials.
But for those who are neither ready for release or trial, the new administration may decide to seek legislation to create a "regime where indefinite detention would be continued."
"I strongly recommend against that solution," Scheinin told reporters after briefing the U.N. General Assembly's Third Committee on social, humanitarian and cultural affairs.
He said the current legal basis for indefinite detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay was deeply flawed.
"But replacing it with an ex post facto law authorizing, after so many years, continued detention -- unavoidably it would be assessed by international human rights bodies as constituting a form of arbitrary detention," he said.
He also chided Canada for refusing to request extradition of a 22-year-old Canadian captive who was 15 years old when he was detained after a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002.
Scheinin said Omar Khadr was a juvenile at the time he was alleged to have thrown a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier.
"It is troubling that Canada is not doing what other countries have done in order to get their citizens or even residents out of Guantanamo," Scheinin said.
Labels: canada, guantanamo, torture
Posted 10:11 AM
by Mary
World 'failing on human rights'
World leaders are failing to tackle human rights abuses around the globe, Amnesty International says.
In an annual report, the group says people are still being tortured or ill-treated in at least 81 countries.In at least 54 states they face unfair trial and cannot speak freely in at least 77 nations, the group adds.
It says world leaders should apologise for 60 years of human rights failures since the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
The group also challenges them "to re-commit themselves to deliver concrete improvements".
The report - which covers 150 countries - was published ahead of the 60th anniversary of the human rights declaration, which was adopted on 10 December 1948.
Mary Robinson, who was from 1997 to 2002 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said recognising the declaration was a very different matter from implementing it.
"I think we have an opportunity during the 60th anniversary year to redress some of the problems since the terrible attacks on the United States, what we now call 911," she said.But Amnesty's document accuses the US of failing to provide a moral compass for its international peers.
"As the world's most powerful state, the USA sets the standard for government behaviour globally," the report says.It notes that Washington "had distinguished itself in recent years through its defiance of international law".
The report says the US must close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp for terror suspects and either prosecute the inmates under fair trials or free them.It also urges Washington to ban all forms of torture and stop propping authoritarian regimes.
It singles out the support of President George W Bush's administration for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf when he imposed a state of emergency, clamped down on media and sacked judges.
The report also says other leading nations must act to improve their human rights records:
* China is urged to adhere to its human rights promises and allow free speech and end "re-education through labour"
* Russia is encouraged to show greater tolerance for political dissent, and none for impunity on human rights abuses in Chechnya
* The EU is being asked to investigate the complicity of its member states in "renditions" of terror suspects.
Launching the document, Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan said: "Injustice, inequality and impunity are the hallmarks of our world today.
"The human rights flashpoints in [Sudan's] Darfur, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Iraq and Myanmar [Burma] demand immediate action.
"2007 was characterised by the impotence of Western governments and the ambivalence or reluctance of emerging powers to tackle some of the world's worst human rights crises." Khan stressed that "governments must act now to close the yawning gap between promise and performance".
She said: "2008 presents an unprecedented opportunity for new leaders coming to power and countries emerging on the world stage to set a new direction and reject the myopic policies and practices that in recent years have made the world a more dangerous and divided place."
Story from BBC NEWS:
Labels: Amnesty, guantanamo, Human Rights, torture
