November, 10 2008, 10:12am EDT
Human Rights Groups Call on European Governments to Offer Humanitarian Protection to Guantanamo Detainees
BERLIN
Five leading human rights groups
today call on European governments to provide humanitarian protection to
Guantanamo detainees who will not be charged with any crime but cannot
be returned to their countries of origin for fear of torture or other serious
human rights violations. European governments should agree to accept them
into their countries and ensure they are provided with adequate support.
Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional
Rights (CCR), Human Rights Watch, Reprieve and the International Federation
for Human Rights (FIDH) urge governments to work with the new U.S. administration
to take this important step in order to facilitate the closure of the detention
facility at Guantanamo.
"Everyone appears to rightly agree that
Guantanamo must be closed, and President-elect Obama has said that he will
close it," said Daniel Gorevan, Counter Terror with Justice campaign manager
at Amnesty International. "Clearly, other governments can help make this
happen by offering protection to individuals who cannot be released to
their own countries. This would have a double effect: helping to end the
ordeal of an individual unlawfully held in violation of his human rights,
and helping end the international human rights scandal that is Guantanamo."
"We must find a solution to the 50 men imprisoned at Guantanamo simply
because they have nowhere to go," said Emi MacLean, Staff Attorney at
the Center for Constitutional Rights. "The U.S. government has twice previously
tried to send our client, Abdul Ra'ouf Al Qassim to Libya even though
it is undisputed that he would likely be tortured, or disappeared into
Libyan jails, if returned. His survival depends on the simple humanitarian
gesture of another country opening their doors to him."
"This is a key opportunity for both sides
of the Atlantic to move beyond the misguided acts of the war on terror:
rendition, secret detention, and torture," said Cori Crider, staff attorney
at Reprieve. "President-elect Obama says he will close Guantanamo
-- the question is when and how. One of Reprieve's clients was sent back
to Tunisia, drugged, hit, and threatened with the rape of his wife and
daughter. Another is fighting, even now, to stay in Guantanamo because
Tunisia threatened him with 'water torture in the barrel.' The United
States still asserts total authority to send him back. Europe can send
a powerful message by reaching out to Obama and providing a safe alternative
for these few people."
"President-elect Obama has committed to
closing Guantanamo, but he is going to need Europe's help," said Joanne
Mariner, Terrorism and Counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch.
"European governments could provide much-needed assistance by agreeing
to take in some of the detainees who cannot be sent back home."
"FIDH and CCR mobilized 77 members of the
European Parliament who issued a joint call to E.U. Member States to offer
relocation for Guantanamo detainees. As an important strategic partner
of the United States, the European Union should help the administration
relocate these men," said Souhayr Belhassen, FIDH president.
Background
It is the primary responsibility of the United
States to find solutions for all those held at Guantanamo, as it was the
United States that brought them to the detention facility and is holding
them there unlawfully. If the United States is not planning to charge and
try them in ordinary U.S. courts, and cannot release them to their own
countries safely, it should immediately offer them an opportunity to be
released into the United States.
It is also clear, however, that governments
in Europe and elsewhere can and should play a vital role in providing such
individuals with humanitarian protection in the form of a safe place to
get on with their lives after years of suffering. The involvement of European
governments will be instrumental in reaching a solution to this problem
-- a solution that is critical to the international aim of closing Guantanamo.
Around 50 of the detainees currently held
in Guantanamo cannot lawfully be sent back to their countries of origin
because they would face a real risk of human rights violations such as
torture or other ill-treatment. They come from countries including China,
Libya, Russia, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan.
The human rights groups made their call after
a two-day closed strategic workshop in Berlin, convened by the nongovernmental
organizations with other international actors active on the issue of humanitarian
protection.
Statements of Support from International
Actors
"We are at a critical juncture. It is now
possible to anticipate the closing of Guantanamo, the end to the U.S. practice
of executive detention, and the re-affirmation of fundamental human rights
principles, including the prohibition of torture in all circumstances.
But European engagement and support will be essential to get there. One
step that European governments should take is to accept into their borders
the small number of men at Guantanamo who cannot be repatriated safely.
Guantanamo cannot be closed until these men have a country which will accept
them, and where their lives and liberty are not in jeopardy."
Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on
Torture
"I urge European governments to open their
doors to a small number of men who fear persecution or torture if transferred
to their home countries. Such assistance is both the right thing to do,
and of critical importance in our attempts to push for the immediate closure
of Guantanamo Bay."
Thomas Hammerberg, Human Rights Commissioner
of the Council of Europe
"The efforts must be renewed now with European
governments and the U.S. government working to close Guantanamo and offer
protection to those unable to be returned safely to their own countries.
The efforts of human rights NGOs are coming at the best moment, in
order to use the next months in the most positive way."
Anne-Marie Lizin, Special Representative
on Guantanamo for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and Vice-President of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the OSCE
LATEST NEWS
'Everyone Is Welcome Here' Signs Banned From Idaho Schools as 'Political' Statement
"To say that 'Everyone is Welcome' in a public school system is not political, it's the law," said one Idaho teacher.
Jul 02, 2025
The Idaho attorney general's office has declared schools in the state will no longer be allowed to post signs declaring that "Everyone is welcome here" on the grounds that they are purportedly a political message aimed at criticizing the policies of President Donald Trump.
Idaho Ed Newsreported Monday that the office has found that signs stating "Everyone is welcome here" violate Idaho House Bill 41, a law passed back in March that bars schools from flying flags or displaying signs that represent "a political viewpoint, including but not limited to flags or banners regarding a political party, race, sexual orientation, gender, or a political ideology."
In explaining its rationale, the Idaho attorney general's office claimed that "these signs are part of an ideological/social movement which started in Twin Cities, Minnesota following the 2016 election of Donald Trump" and added that "since that time, the signs have been used by the Democratic Party as a political statement. The Idaho Democratic Party even sells these signs as part of its fundraising efforts.”
The signs became an issue after Sarah Inama, a teacher in Idaho's West Ada School District, had refused to take them down from her classroom in the wake of Idaho House Bill 41's passage because she did not believe that a sign welcoming students regardless of their race or ethnicity should be considered political.
In a statement to Idaho Ed News, Inama once again expressed bewilderment that anyone could find the signs to be a political statement, especially given that government institutions are already legally barred from engaging in racial discrimination.
"To say that 'Everyone is welcome' in a public school system is not political, it's the law," Inama told the publication.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'This Fight Is Not Over': Progressives Launch Last-Ditch Push Against GOP Budget Monstrosity
"This country deserves better than this dumpster fire of greed, cruelty, and cowardice."
Jul 02, 2025
Progressives within and outside of Congress are mobilizing and working to rally public opposition on Wednesday as House Republicans moved to put the final stamp of approval on a budget package that includes unprecedented cuts to Medicaid and federal nutrition assistance—alongside trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
"This fight isn't over, and we're not backing down," Andrew O'Neil, national advocacy director of Indivisible, said following the Republican-controlled Senate's narrow passage of the budget reconciliation bill on Tuesday, a vote so close that Vice President JD Vance was forced to intervene to push the measure over the finish line.
The GOP's margins are similarly thin in the House, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) only able to lose three Republican members amid unanimous Democratic opposition.
Indivisible and other advocacy organizations are driving calls and emails to House Republicans on Wednesday urging them to vote down the Senate-passed legislation, which is significantly more expensive and contains more aggressive Medicaid cuts than the bill the House approved in May. Medicaid cuts are highly unpopular with the U.S. public, including among Republican voters.
The phone number for the U.S. House switchboard is (202) 224-3121.
"Your Republican representative could be the deciding vote," Ezra Levin, Indivisible's co-executive director, said in an appearance on MSNBC late Tuesday. "We've got about 26 Republican targets. We need four of them—we just need four. And this is not a done deal."
While a House vote on the legislation could come as soon as Wednesday, far-right hardliners in the Republican caucus are threatening to prevent a quick advance of the bill, pointing to projections that it would add trillions of dollars to the nation's deficit over the next decade.
Reps. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) reportedly headed to the White House on Wednesday to meet with Trump administration officials, who have urged Republican holdovers to drop their objections and help pass the budget legislation.
Progressive lawmakers in the House, meanwhile, are united in firm opposition to the bill, which they warn would have catastrophic impacts on vulnerable Americans nationwide.
"No way will I allow [President Donald] Trump and the GOP to rip healthcare and food away from millions of Americans just so he, [Elon] Musk, and their billionaire buddies can get a tax break," Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said Wednesday, declaring that he will vote "hell no" on the Republican bill.
Today the Senate passed the biggest betrayal of working people in modern history.
It rips health care from 17 million, slashes food aid, and showers billionaires with tax breaks.
Next stop: the House. Progressives will be voting HELL NO. https://t.co/qd4Q13YiNa
— Progressive Caucus (@USProgressives) July 1, 2025
House Republican leaders are hoping to get the bill to President Donald Trump's desk for his signature before the July 4 holiday on Friday.
If passed, experts say the GOP legislation would spark the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history.
Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, said Tuesday that the Republican bill "steals from the poor to give massive tax cuts to the wealthy."
"If the Republicans wanted to add $4 trillion to the national debt, they could have instead written a $12,000 check to each and every adult and child in the United States," said Shierholz. "However, this grotesque bill would cause the bottom 40% of households to lose income on average. This country deserves better than this dumpster fire of greed, cruelty, and cowardice."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Rights Defenders Denounce Trump-DeSantis Alligator Alcatraz as 'Direct Assault on Humanity'
"This facility echoes some of our nation's darkest history," said a civil liberties advocate.
Jul 02, 2025
Civil liberties advocates expressed horror on Tuesday after President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a joint press event at a massive new detention facility in the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz."
The facility was first announced last month when Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier unveiled a plan to renovate the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport and transform it into a mass detention center for immigrants. During a press event touting the new facility, DeSantis boasted that detainees being held at the facility had little hope of ever escaping given that it was surrounded by miles of alligator-infested swamps.
"What'll happen is you'll bring people in there, they ain't going anywhere once they're there unless you want them to go somewhere, because, good luck getting to civilization," he explained. "So the security is amazing—natural and otherwise."
Civil liberties advocates were appalled by the new facility, which is lined with razor-wire fence and is projected at least initially to house 5,000 beds for immigrants awaiting deportation. Bacardi Jackson, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, accused Trump and DeSantis of engaging in wanton cruelty with their touting of the new facility and said it harkened back to dark chapters in American history.
"Building a prison-like facility on sacred indigenous land in the middle of the Everglades is a direct assault on humanity, dignity, indigenous sovereignty, and the constitutional protections we all share," she said. “Our laws—both U.S. and Florida—prohibit cruel and unusual punishment. Yet, this facility echoes some of our nation's darkest history, all while trampling the very land that indigenous communities have long fought to protect."
She added that "the facility's opening also comes as Congress is poised to authorize $45 billion in funding to expand the harmful mass immigration detention machine, right on the heels of multiple deaths in detention facilities" and further said that the project "dehumanizes people, strips them of their rights, and diverts public dollars from the services our communities need."
Guardian correspondent Robert Tait, meanwhile, described the press event surrounding the facility's opening as a "calculatedly provocative celebration of the dystopian" in a place that was designed to be "a location of dread to those lacking documentary proof of their right to be in the U.S."
Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta delivered an even more scathing denunciation of the facility on his Substack page, labeling it a "gulag in the swamp" that was intended to distract Trump supporters from the Republican Party's efforts to take an axe to Medicaid spending in their budget bill.
"Trump knows he can salvage a bad news cycle in conservative media if he can find new and, in this case, medieval ways to torment immigrants," Acosta explained. "Distract the base from Medicaid coverage they're going to lose or the skyrocketing deficits plaguing future generations by conjuring up the fantasy of terrified migrants being eaten by alligators—a prospect that seemed to delight Trump when speaking with reporters Tuesday morning."
Amid growing condemnation of the facility, Trump adviser Stephen Miller encouraged other states to pitch their own ideas for migrant detention facilities during a Tuesday night Fox News appearance. What's more, Miller said that accepted proposals from states would receive funding from the very same GOP budget bill that is projected to slash Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion over a 10-year period.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular