Tag Archives: security with human rights

HAPPENING NOW: White House Vigil to Mark 100 Days of Hunger Strike

May 17, 2013 at 9:27 AM
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To mark the 100th day of the Guantanamo hunger strike, Amnesty International USA is holding a vigil outside the White House today with several other groups (Photo Credit: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images).

To mark the 100th day of the Guantanamo hunger strike, Amnesty International USA is holding a vigil outside the White House today with several other groups (Photo Credit: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images).

By Carrie Neff Maley, Human Rights Campaigner, Amnesty International USA

Today marks the 100th consecutive day that detainees at Guantanamo have been refusing food as part of a hunger strike that began in Camp 6 at the facility. According to a letter addressed to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and signed by 50 attorneys representing detainees, the hunger strike which began on February 6, 2013, was initiated in response to,

“[W]idespread searches of detainees’ Qur’ans—perceived as religious desecration — as well as searches and confiscation of other personal items, including family letters and photographs, and legal mail, seemingly without provocation or cause.”

Both the hunger strike and the brutal practice of force feeding have become a symbol of the deprivation of human rights taking place at Guantanamo. Virtually every personal freedom has been stripped from the detainees, most of whom have not been charged with any crime and are not facing trial.

Guantanamo Bay has been the site of indefinite detention and numerous other violations of human rights since 2002. It is also, as Rolling Stone’s John Knefel calls it, “the site of a unique legal experiment that has no direct precedent in U.S. history.”

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Tweet for Freedom in Turkey: Say No to the Criminalization of Dissent!

March 28, 2013 at 1:56 PM
Journalists and activists participate in a rally for press freedom and against the detention of journalists under anti-terrorism laws in the capital of Ankara (Photo Credit: Ümit Bektas/Reuters).

Journalists and activists participate in a rally for press freedom and against the detention of journalists under anti-terrorism laws in the capital of Ankara (Photo Credit: Ümit Bektas/Reuters).

In a major report this week, Amnesty International has outlined the wide range of legal tools that Turkish authorities have used to target political dissent and limit freedom of expression. Scholars, students, journalists, human rights activists, and thousands of others have been subject to prosecution and lengthy punishment under these statutes. But you can join us in working for real reform in Turkey!

Amnesty has noted that:

The most negative development in recent years has been the increasingly arbitrary use of anti-terrorism laws to prosecute legitimate activities including political speeches, critical writing, attendance of demonstrations and association with recognized political groups and organizations – in violation of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly.

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5 Questions on Drones Senators Should Ask Attorney General Holder on Wednesday

March 1, 2013 at 2:41 PM
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its ninth periodic oversight hearing of the Department of Justice on Wednesday, March 6th at 9 a.m. with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images).

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its ninth periodic oversight hearing of the Department of Justice on Wednesday, March 6th at 9 a.m. with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images).

On Wednesday March 6th at 9 a.m., the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its ninth periodic oversight hearing of the Department of Justice with Attorney General Eric Holder. It’s not a hearing on drones and the Obama administration’s counter terrorism policy, but it should be.

As we saw with the Senate Intelligence Committee’s confirmation hearing with John Brennan several weeks ago, the Obama administration’s killing program remains shrouded in secrecy and the little information we do know gives grounds to conclude that the program as a whole allows for the use of lethal force that violates the right to life under international law.

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Dispatch from Guantanamo: Military Commissions, in Fits and Starts

February 13, 2013 at 9:34 AM

Camp Justice, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
By Justin Mazzola, Researcher at Amnesty International USA

This assignment was supposed to fulfill a career-long dream. In the ten years I have been employed by Amnesty International USA in research, the opportunity to travel to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to observe military commission proceedings against the detainees charged with leading involvement in the September 11th terrorist attacks was something I always wanted to experience firsthand.

I flew down to this US Naval station on the southeast edge of Cuba and I arrived Sunday evening just in time to gain my first experience of the ever-changing world of military commission justice when the press briefing rules were amended at the last minute to prevent observers from attending the opening press briefing by the defense and prosecution counsels.

As a human rights researcher, I somewhat knew what to expect. However as an attorney, this morning threw me a relative curveball, even from a military commission process which is now in its third incarnation with multiple legal challenges and stoppages in the past 12 years.  SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

The State of Guantanamo: 11 Years of Limbo for Shaker Aamer

February 12, 2013 at 2:21 PM
Shaker Aamer Valentine

This Valentine’s Day marks 11 years in Guantanamo for Shaker Aamer. President Obama, charge Shaker or send him home!

Valentine’s Day is almost here — a bittersweet holiday for human rights activists who have been campaigning to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. February 14th marks a tragic milestone for Shaker Aamer, one of the detainee cases Amnesty International has worked on for years now.

11 years on February 14, 2013. That’s how long Shaker Aamer has spent behind bars at Guantanamo Bay Prison, without charge, without trial – really, without hope.

Tonight President Obama will give his State of the Union address, the first of his new administration. Will he mention how he broke his promise to close Guantanamo? Will Shaker Aamer’s name come up? President Obama has been given four more years to shape a legacy worthy of his Nobel Peace Prize. But Shaker Aamer can’t wait any longer for justice.
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4 Things We Can Do in 2013 to Close Guantanamo

January 17, 2013 at 4:44 PM
Jan 11, 2013 Guantanamo anniversary protest

© Scott Langley Photography

2013 has been a busy year at Amnesty already. From protesting torture at the Washington, DC premiere of the film Zero Dark Thirty to people across the US and around the world spending January 11 (the 11th anniversary of “war on terror” detainees arriving at Guantanamo) marching against the continued human rights violations being committed by the US government, we have some real momentum to start the new year.

We still don’t have the outcome we all want — President Obama hasn’t ended human rights violations and hasn’t kept his long-standing promise to close Guantanamo prison. But we are making progress. We know it will be a long fight, but history shows that change can happen through sustained activism. Just last week the infamous Tamms “supermax” prison in Illinois closed after years of campaigning. Guantanamo will be next!

We can’t do it without you. Here are 4 things we can do to close Guantanamo and promote human rights in 2013:

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Does Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Have Rights?

October 16, 2012 at 12:22 PM

On Monday here at Guantánamo, I saw Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in person for the first time. He’s accused of leading involvement in the 9/11 attacks that killed 2,976 people. Proceedings against him and the four alleged 9/11 co-conspirators resumed at the U.S. Naval Station this week, in a military commission process that does not meet international standards for fair trials.

Ever since the 9/11 attacks, a crime against humanity, Amnesty International has been calling for those involved to be brought to justice. In a letter to President George W. Bush over 11 years ago, we wrote that in the wake of such a crime:

It is vital to maintain the highest respect for human rights and international human rights standards. This should include using every means available to bring those responsible for the 11 September attacks to justice within the framework of a fair and accountable criminal justice system, and with full respect for international standards for a fair trial. We urge your administration to adhere to such standards every step of the way towards the objective of justice, and to reject any resort to the death penalty in pursuit of this goal.

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What’s Going On At Guantanamo This Week? Shhh…It’s A Secret

October 15, 2012 at 10:07 AM
camp justice guantanamo

Camp justice?

It’s no secret that I’m at Guantánamo this week to observe pre-trial motion hearings in the military commission case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four other alleged co-conspirators in the 9/11 attacks.

What is secret? According to U.S. authorities, everything the five defendants know, say or write–including about their time in CIA custody. It’s all “presumptively classified” Top Secret/Special Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).  Everything. From torture to what they ate for breakfast.

According to a defense motion filed against “presumptive classification” (one of several motions to be addressed at Guantánamo this week), “If a prisoner says that he misses his family, this information is ‘born classified’ even though no original classification authority would or could ever classify it.”

As Amnesty International’s report, “Wrong Court, Wrong Place, Wrong
Punishment” explains:
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Will The Election Decide What Is Considered ‘Torture’?

September 28, 2012 at 8:45 AM
torture protest washington dc

© Shawn Duffy

Yesterday The New York Times published a story with the headline “Election May Decide When Interrogation Amounts to Torture.” It compares and contrasts President Obama and Governor Romney on torture.

While there are a number of points in the article one could address—for example, the claim that techniques approved in the Army Field Manual are “nonabusive”—the bigger picture is this:

  • U.S. torture was, and continues to be, about systemic institutional failures, including an over emphasis on domestic political values at the expense of international standards, and the failure to end impunity and lack of remedy for past abuses.

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Breaking: US Issues List of 55 Guantanamo Detainees Cleared for Transfer

September 21, 2012 at 3:08 PM
Guantanamo Bay detention camp

Guantanamo Bay detention camp

Politico’s Josh Gerstein reports that the Obama administration’s Department of Justice has made public for the first time a list of 55 Guantanamo detainees cleared for transfer out of the prison.

These detainees must be immediately released to countries that will respect their human rights. If the Obama administration can’t find suitable and willing countries to take them right away, then these detainees should–if they are willing–be released in the United States.

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