The Guantanamo detention centre - unlawful, inhumane, unstrategic, a dangerous symbol of injustice and selectivity - turns 22 today. For almost as long, our client Abu Zubaydah has been detained by the CIA and at Gitmo, without charge, trial or review of the lawfulness of detention. Multiple courts and international legal authorities have now clarified that he (like the 29 others that remain at Guantanamo) are held in arbitrary detention amounting to torture, and that the US and other states must act urgently to bring this to an end.
A quick anniversary recap, just from some of the litigation we have brought on behalf of Abu Zubaydah (other detainees’ cases and other UN reports add to this chorus):
- In April 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found the US, UK, Thailand, Afghanistan, Morocco, Lithuania and Poland share responsibility for violations of his rights and should ‘take the steps necessary to remedy the situation without delay’, noting the only appropriate remedy is ‘immediate release …and reparation’. (Those states were due to have reported on measures to given effect to this decision by October 2023.)
- Back in 2014 and 2018, the European Court of Human Rights found Poland and Lithuania responsible for complicity in CIA detention, torture and transfer to Guantanamo, and that they must make representations to bring to an end the ‘flagrant denial of justice’ to which he and others are subject.
- Most recently, in October last year, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe underscored the urgency of 'profound humanitarian concerns' in Abu Zubaydah’s case and the arbitrariness of Guantánamo - cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment that may also meet the legal threshold for torture. They made an ‘urgent call’ for states to step up diplomatic efforts, notably looking beyond the states directly responsible for complicity in the wrongs, and calling on ALL Council of Europe states to step up pressure for closure and repatriation.
Can we make those findings - and the human rights and international law obligations they reflect - matter in 2024? What measures are being taken by states - including offers of relocation and rehabilitation to Abu Zubaydah and others - to finally bring to an end the shameful saga of Guantanamo Bay?