News Release Issued by the
International Secretariat of Amnesty International
AI INDEX: AMR
51/118/2003
"The very core of
American history, law and culture condemns the ideas of punishment before
trial, denial of due process and secret government by fiat... Who is an enemy
combatant? Today, it can be anyone the president wants. And that is terrifying."
A former judge on the Superior Court of New Jersey.
The
"All too often where
the US leads others follow - increasingly by using the language of
"war", governments have disregarded human rights obligations; by
using the term "terror" they have endeavoured to avoid international
human rights law; and by using the phrase "war on terror", they have
challenged the very framework of human rights and international humanitarian
law."
In the report -- The Threat
Of A Bad Example: Undermining International Standards As "War On
Terror" Continues-- Amnesty International calls on governments everywhere
to ensure that a strict respect for human rights principles remains at the
heart of their search for justice and security. The report highlights issues relating
to foreign detainees in
"Allegations of abuses
such as arbitrary arrests, prolonged incommunicado detention, ill-treatment,
interrogations without legal counsel and threats of unfair trials by military
bodies are raised each year in the US State Department's reports on human
rights practices in other countries," said Amnesty International.
"Now they are being made against the
Recent interviews conducted
by Amnesty International with some of the few dozen people who have been
released from Guantánamo confirm what Amnesty International has feared from the
outset -- that the totality of the conditions, including the prolonged
indefinite and isolating nature of the detention regime, amounts to an abuse of
human rights.
"The
The persistence of
ill-treatment allegations, the lack of access to independent human rights
organisations and lawyers who can make their findings public, coupled with the
possibility that the USA's understanding of what constitutes cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment may not meet international definitions, have left Amnesty
International seriously concerned about the treatment of those in US custody.
Ill-treatment also reported
to Amnesty International include prolonged sleep deprivation, inadequate
exercise provision, prolonged restraint in painful positions, sometimes
combined with exposure to loud music, and exposure to 24-hour lighting. The
conditions may also be coercive in the context of the repeated interrogations
to which the detainees have been subjected, interrogations which could be used
for prosecutorial as well as intelligence-gathering purposes, or for coercing
plea bargains.
One released prisoner told
Amnesty International that his hours-long interrogations at Guantánamo were
"like torture". Another, a taxi driver, Sayed Abassin, told the
organization that he had been arrested en route from
"There were no human
rights for me in that year," Abassin told Amnesty International. Other
released prisoners claimed there were more innocent people held at Guantánamo,
arbitrarily arrested and held without evidence of wrongdoing.
Currently, the
"It will be a case of
second-class justice for foreign nationals in violation of the prohibition on
the discriminatory application of fair trial rights," Amnesty
International stated.
The report is part of
Amnesty International's ongoing efforts to persuade the
"The administration has
sought to insulate its actions from domestic judicial review and from the eyes
of the international community. The
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The Threat Of A Bad Example: Undermining International Standards As
"War On Terror" Continues, full report online at http://amnesty-news.c.tclk.net/maabl88aaZU7ubb0iqnb/
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Past and current Amnesty
news services can be found at
<http://www.amnesty.org/news/>. Visit
<http://www.amnesty.org>
for information about Amnesty
International and for other AI
publications. Contact
amnestyis@amnesty.org if you need to get
in touch with the
International Secretariat of Amnesty International.
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