Security with Human Rights
The United States government is required by international law to respect and ensure human rights, to investigate all human rights violations, and to bring those found responsible for such violations to justice. Detainees at the facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, must either be promptly charged and given fair trials in U.S. federal courts or released to countries where they will not be at risk of human rights violations. Since September 11, the U.S. government has repeatedly violated national and international prohibitions against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. These practices must stop, and those responsible for approving and conducting them must be held accountable. The military commissions set up by Presidents Bush and Obama do not meet international standards for fairness and they must be abandoned. Those whom the government seeks to prosecute should be tried in independent and impartial tribunals, such as federal courts. Abusive private military and security contractors should be prosecuted. Learn more about the Security with Human Rights Campaign at www.amnestyusa.org/security.
The cases of Fawzi al-Odah and Fayiz al-Kandari
Fawzi al-Odah and Fayiz al-Kandari are the two remaining Kuwaiti detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba. The Kuwaiti government has requested their return. They should either be charged and tried in an independent and impartial federal tribunal, or they should be released. Now in their mid-thirties, they have spent the last nine years detained at Guantanamo without being charged with any crime. In effect, they have been sentenced to life imprisonment without trial and in the absence of evidence admissible in a U.S. court.
Fawzi al-Odah traveled from Kuwait to Pakistan and Afghanistan for the stated purpose of teaching and doing charity work. He was detained in Pakistan in late 2001 and turned over to U.S. authorities, detained in Kandahar, and later transferred to Guantanamo. He alleges that he was tortured. He was subjected to forced feeding during a hunger strike. His father, who had flown missions with the U.S. Air Force during the first Gulf War, has organized the Kuwaiti Family Committee. In 2010, Fawzi al-Odah’s petition for habeas corpus was denied.
Fayiz al-Kandari reports having performed charity work in Bosnia in 1994 and Afghanistan in 1997. He says that he went to Afghanistan in 2001 as a student on a humanitarian aid mission to build two wells and repair a mosque. He was captured by Afghan forces in December 2001 and sold to the U.S. military. He alleges that he was subjected to a variety of abusive tactics, including sleep deprivation, physical and verbal assaults, prolonged stress positions, the use of dogs, loud music, and temperature extremes. His petition for habeas corpus was denied in September 2010.
