UN experts urge new US administration to close Guantanamo prison
A group of United Nations (UN) human rights experts on Monday appealed to the new U.S. administration to immediately close the disgraceful Guantanamo Bay detention center.
In a joint statement issued on Monday marking the 19th anniversary of the center’s establishment, the experts said that the remaining detainees risk death from rapidly deteriorating health by old age and mental and physical harm suffered in cruel and inhuman conditions of imprisonment.
“Guantanamo is a place of arbitrariness and abuse, a site where torture and ill-treatment was rampant and remains institutionalized, where the rule of law is effectively suspended, and where justice is denied,” the experts clarified.
“The very existence of this facility is a disgrace for the United States and the international community as a whole. Guantanamo should have been closed a long time ago,” they said.
According to the experts, the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbates health vulnerabilities for the increasingly elderly prison population.
More details can be found in this link:
https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/01/1081842
Source: UN News