April 11, 2013<\/p>\n
President Barack Obama<\/p>\n
The White House<\/p>\n
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW<\/p>\n
Washington DC, 20500<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Re:\u00a0 Concern about hunger strike and stalled efforts to close the detention <\/strong><\/p>\n facility at Guant\u00e1namo<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Dear President Obama,<\/p>\n We, the undersigned human rights and civil liberties organizations, are writing to urge you to take immediate steps to end indefinite detention without charge and begin closing the prison at Guant\u00e1namo Bay.\u00a0 If ever there were a moment to act upon the promise you made over four years ago to shutter the prison, it is now.\u00a0 For several weeks, major news outlets, attorneys for the prisoners, and even military officials have been reporting that there is a large hunger strike occurring among the men detained at Guant\u00e1namo. The current situation is the predictable result of continuing to hold prisoners indefinitely without charge for more than 11 years. Therefore, we urge you to begin working to transfer the remaining detained men to their home countries or other countries for resettlement, or to charge them in a court that comports with fair trial standards. We also urge you to appoint an individual within your administration to lead the transfer effort.<\/p>\n Media reports describe an increasingly desperate situation at Guant\u00e1namo. Attorneys for the detained men are reporting that some of them are in critical condition. According to the World Medical Association, irreversible cognitive impairment and physiological damage may begin to occur by the fortieth day of a hunger strike, after which the possibility of death becomes an imminent risk. Military officials also acknowledge that the situation is escalating. While they continue to cite lower numbers of hunger strikers than reported by lawyers who have met with or spoken to their clients detained at Guant\u00e1namo, their current tally is more than a four-fold increase over the first government tally released on March 11, 2013.<\/p>\n The unfolding crisis at Guant\u00e1namo cannot be divorced from the fact that the vast majority of the 166 remaining prisoners have now been held for more than 11 years without charge and still do not know their fate. More than half of them \u2013 86 men \u2013 were approved for transfer over three years ago by the Guant\u00e1namo Review Task Force that you established, yet transfers have all but ceased. General John Kelly of the U.S. Southern Command has himself acknowledged the psychological impact of indefinite detention at Guant\u00e1namo. At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on March 20, 2013, he stated that the prisoners have been \u201cdevastated\u201d by what they perceive as your decision to \u201cback off\u201d of the promise you made in January 2009 to close the detention facility.<\/p>\n We urge you to order the relevant authorities to take swift measures to humanely and lawfully address the immediate causes of the hunger strike in a manner consistent with international standards of medical ethics before irreparable harm occurs to the prisoners. Moreover, we urge you to take steps to address the root of the problem by fulfilling your promise to close Guant\u00e1namo without further delay. To that end, we ask that you:<\/p>\n 1) Direct Secretary of Defense Charles Hagel to use his authority to issue the certifications or national security waivers required by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA 2013) to effect transfers from Guant\u00e1namo.<\/p>\n 2) Appoint an individual within your Administration to lead the effort to close Guant\u00e1namo.<\/p>\n The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, again stated that the continued operation of Guant\u00e1namo Bay remains a \u201cclear breach of international law,\u201d and reiterated that it should be closed. While we stand ready to support the Administration\u2019s efforts to close Guant\u00e1namo Bay in a manner consistent with its international legal obligations, this problem demands your presidential leadership. We urge you to act now.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Center for Constitutional Rights<\/p>\n American Civil Liberties Union<\/p>\n Amnesty International<\/p>\n Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund<\/p>\n Bill of Rights Defense Committee<\/p>\n Center for Justice & Accountability<\/p>\n Center for Justice and International Law<\/p>\n Center for Victims of Torture<\/p>\n Council on American-Islamic Relations<\/p>\n Defending Dissent Foundation<\/p>\n Human Rights Advocates<\/p>\n Human Rights First<\/p>\n Human Rights Watch<\/p>\n International Center for Advocates Against Discrimination<\/p>\n International Federation for Human Rights<\/p>\n International Justice Network<\/p>\n National Lawyers Guild<\/p>\n National Religious Campaign Against Torture<\/p>\n Physicians for Human Rights<\/p>\n Reprieve<\/p>\n The Constitution Project<\/p>\n Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International<\/p>\n United States Human Rights Network<\/p>\n Urban Justice Center<\/p>\n Witness Against Torture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-3861","comunicado-de-prensa","type-comunicado-de-prensa","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comunicado-de-prensa\/3861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comunicado-de-prensa"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/comunicado-de-prensa"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}