Close ‘disgraceful’ Guantánamo camp – UN experts urge incoming US administration

Exactly after 19 years after the establishment of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, on 11 January 2021, the UN independent human rights experts urged the incoming United States administration of Joe Biden to immediately close the highly criticised detention facility.

As the experts said, Guantánamo is “a place of arbitrariness and abuse, a site where torture and ill-treatment was rampant and remains institutionalized, where the rule of law is effectively suspended, and where justice is denied”.

The experts urge the US to respect its international legal obligations, conduct prompt and impartial investigations of alleged human rights violations and provide redress and rehabilitation to those who have endured prolonged arbitrary detention or any form of torture or ill-treatment.