[Ppnews] Current Conditions of Confinement at Guantanamo

[Political Prisoner News]

Today, the Department of Defense issued a report 
that claim conditions of confinement at 
Guantanamo Bay uphold U.S. and international 
human rights law. For many of our clients, 
however, who have endured over seven years of 
arbitrary detention without charge or trial, the 
appalling conditions that have characterized the 
prison camp since its inception continue in 
violation of international standards to the present day.

<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=P4kg2hFmThUZ4gbiVoJHfG10kcP7iLH8>CCR 
issued its own report today - "Conditions of 
Confinement at Guantanamo: Still in Violation of 
the 
Law"<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=P4kg2hFmThUZ4gbiVoJHfG10kcP7iLH8> 
- which includes new eyewitness accounts by detainees and their attorneys.

The new report details the inhumane conditions at 
the base that persist despite President Obama's 
Executive Order of January 22, 2009, requiring 
humane standards of confinement at Guantanamo. 
These include ongoing, severe solitary 
confinement, other psychological abuse, incidents 
of violence and threats of violence from guards, 
religious abuse and widespread forced 
tube-feeding of hunger strikers. In contrast to 
the military's report, which appears to include 
very little testimony or reports from Guantanamo 
detainees themselves, CCR's report offers 
multiple cases of abuse in the last two months 
directly from detainees' experiences.

The report also includes a series of 
recommendations to ensure the conditions at 
Guantanamo satisfy legal standards for the humane 
treatment of the detainees while its closure is implemented.



Current Conditions of Confinement at Guantanamo

http://ccrjustice.org/learn-more/reports/current-conditions-confinement-guantanamo

Currently at Guantánamo, the majority of 
detainees are being held in conditions of 
solitary confinement in one of two super-maximum 
facilities – Camps 5 and 6 – or in Camp Echo. The 
conditions in these camps are harshly punitive 
and violate international and U.S. legal 
standards for the humane treatment of persons 
deprived of their liberty. Solitary confinement, 
sensory deprivation, environmental manipulation, 
and sleep deprivation are daily realities for 
these men and have led to the steady 
deterioration of their physical and psychological 
health. In addition, detainees are subjected to 
brutal physical assaults by the Immediate 
Reaction Force (IRF), a team of military guards 
comparable to a riot squad, who are trained to 
respond to alleged "disciplinary infractions" 
with overwhelming force. Detainees have also been 
deprived of virtually all meaningful contact with 
their families, and have suffered interference 
with and abuse related to their right to practice their religion.

Contrary to statements by the military, 
conditions at Guantánamo have not improved for 
the majority of detainees and are still in 
violation of the law. In this report, we describe 
the current conditions of confinement for the men 
at Guantánamo and make recommendations for 
bringing Camps 5, 6 and Echo into immediate 
compliance with "all applicable laws" governing 
the conditions of confinement of detainees, as 
required by President Obama's Executive Order.

The descriptions of ongoing, severe solitary 
confinement, other forms of psychological abuse, 
incidents of violence and the threat of violence 
from guards, religious abuse, and widespread 
forced tube-feeding of hunger strikers indicate 
that the inhumane practices of the Bush 
Administration persist today at Guantánamo, 
despite President Obama's Executive Order, and should be remedied immediately.



Download a PDF version of the report below, or 
<http://ccrjustice.org/files/CCR_Report_Conditions_At_Guantanamo.pdf>click 
here.




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20090223/29b65cc4/attachment.html>