Conditions at Guantánamo Are Cruel and Inhuman, U.N. Investigation Finds
The last 30 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, including the men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, are being held by the United States under circumstances that constitute “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law,” a United Nations human rights investigator said on Monday.
Fionnuala Ni Aolain, a law professor in Minnesota serving as special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, included the finding in a report drawn from a four-day visit to the prison in February, which included meetings with an undisclosed number of detainees and interviews with lawyers and former prisoners. She issued the report one month before her term as rapporteur ends.
She specifically cited the cumulative effects of inadequate health care, solitary confinement, restraints and use of force to remove prisoners from their cells as contributing to her conclusions. She said the conditions at the prison “may also meet the legal threshold for torture.”
Ms. Aolain was the first United Nations investigator to be granted access to the detention center in its two-decade history. She said in an interview that she met with a cross section of the 34 prisoners who were there in February, including former C.I.A. detainees who are facing criminal charges and others who have been approved for transfer to other nations. Today, 30 remain.
Source: The New York Times
