GUANTANAMO BAY 2
Running head: GUANTANAMO BAY
Guantanamo Bay: Human rights violation, torture, and what impact this has on the U.S. Government
Name
COLLEGE; CRJ 480
03/21/2018
Introduction
Guantanamo Bay is camp detention that was opened back in 2002 with the purpose of housing all the suspected terrorist people who are associated with al-Qaeda and Taliban. The Bay was formed after the 2001 terrorists attack in the United States states to discipline them as well as getting information from them. Most of the suspected terrorists were from Afghanistan and Iraq and were detained by United States government without any charges, and they couldn’t defend themselves. However, Guantanamo Bay has been a house of torture and violation of human rights to these prisoners. The purpose of this article is to discuss the Guantanamo Bay violation of human rights, torture and what impact this has on the government.
According to Anderson, various policies should protect every human right in the United States regardless of the mistakes the people have done (Anderson, 2009). However, at Guantanamo Bay, prisoners are not allowed to have their say. One of the prisoners in Guantanamo by the name Mohammed Slahi is a victim of this; he had written a journal about the torture and violation of human rights in this Bay, but the diary was not released until 12 years later. Slahi said that he was not allowed to speak his mind or expose any torture they receive from military officials and guards in this prison. Slahi experienced both physical and emotional assaults. He stated that he was sexually abused by two female guards in prison and when he tried to pray out loud, they became furious and punched him in his mouth. Slahi explains how he poured much blood, but they could not get him medical services, instead, after harassing him for three hours, another group of guards was waiting to torture him to the extreme. Notably, this is just a case of Slahi; other prisoners, for example, Ali Ahmed committed suicide because he could not bear the harassment in the Bay. There have been many other cases of suicidal as a result of torture and violation of human rights.
According to Clark’s journal of medical and ethics in Guantanamo, he argues that although there is a policy of using drugs to get information from the A-Qaeda, this policy is not used correctly in this Bay (Clark, 2005). Some official military overuse the drugs threatening the health of the prisoners. Some become stubborn and could not give information as required, and a fight ensues leading to more physical torture. According to this source, medical rights should be offered to these prisoners regardless of their mistakes (Bloche, 2005). Although being a terrorist is not a good thing, it is beyond the provisions of article 5 laws of the United States to deny the prisoners chances to seek medical attention.
Fetcher wrote an article exposing torture in Guantanamo Bay, but this has not been effective due to corruption at the Bay and silencing of the prisoners. They are threatened with murder if they expose the torture they face. This lead to less exposure and no mitigations are taken to protect their rights. Fetcher argues how the government has tried to close Guantanamo, but the plan did not bear fruits during Obama’s presidency. There has been less measure taken by the government to end the torture at Guantanamo Bay. Many people have lost their lives while in this prison, and their loved ones have been in pain and sorrow (Priest, 2005). Although the military considers these prisoners as very guilty people, they have their families and people who genuinely love them. Violating their rights and torturing them to death cause pain to family members and those who are close to them.
Based on Nacdl news, even international people who are in the United States have their human rights. It is unlawful to torture them and treatment with distaste (Nacdl news, 2012). The president Obama has a plan to end the Bay, and a debate was conducted to analyze the torture the prisoners go through. However, due to top persistence in some incoming terrorists among other reasons, the Bay is still there. Evans wrote a political article on human rights in Guantanamo Bay torture ( Evans, 2005).He says that such assaults and negligence of law from the guards and military officials is wrong and actions should be taken. The article describes those prisoners in Guantanamo experiences hunger strike with the aim of dying out of the violation they experience at the Bay.
There have been several incidences in which Guantanamo militaries harass the prisoners because they don’t belong to that country. The armies take that they are the owners of the nation and the expat’s detainees cannot be treated in similar ways compared to detainees from United States (Evans, 2005).
Consequently, this leads to discrimination in many sectors such as labor department, hospital services, business sectors among others. Hence, this has led to psychological and mental problems to those who faces discrimination. It would thus be essential to stop being blind to racism and take actions to curb this problem in Guantanamo Bay (Fletcher, 2004).
There have been death issues due to torture and lack of proper reinforcement of the human rights in the United States.There is a mixture of prisoners from Iraq some of whom are from the United States among other nations. Most prisoners from Afghanistan are not well off compared to the terrorists from the United States and have to rely on public medical services (Fletcher, 2004). Although prisoners of the Western who reside in Guantanamo Bay need medical attention, they cannot afford. The prisoners usually pay 50dollars per year for medical insurance fee which is not the same case for the citizens’ prisoners although the government does not pay for them yet they do not have salaries (Priest, 2005). Thus, when seeking for medical attention, most of them cannot afford and have to wait to be sponsored by the government, but that right is always denied.
In 2016, there was a report of Guantanamo Bay clinic and medical healthcare banning prisoners from using the emergency services. There was a case in April 2016 in which the legislation passed on a rule to increase the prices of water for the prisoners yet for the instance of prisoners from the United States it is not applied. This is racism and not fairs for the foreigners since water is the source of hygiene and people need water to survive. Those foreign prisoners who cannot afford such expenses may end up in poor sanitation which may lead to health issues. The military denies them water to drink and bath as a way of harassing them
The government-parliament in the United States held a meeting to discuss financial fees for services the prisoners receive (Luban, 2002). However, these opinions had to come from the universal declaration of human rights which are members of the parliament in the government. It thus means that the prisoners are not given an opportunity to speak their minds concerning the same issues. They would have to accept the parliament opinion about the government using this method to achieve the economic reforms planned for Guantanamo to change its usual harassment to the prisoners (Fitzpatrick, 2003). The opinions from the parliament members in the United States suggests ideas like imposing insurance cover for health care services for all the prisoners.
The healthcare and the legislative authority agreed on implementing health care, and no terrorist opinion was involved in such discussion. The parliament members have other plans of building new hospitals for only prisoners from Guantanamo who will be treated with massive insurance fees that will be supported by the government (Fitzpatrick, 2003). The political positions are only preserved for the citizens and discriminating against those prisoners who would wish to contest on political rallies.
This is because the United State government would not wish a situation in which expats would have positions in the parliament and raise opinions to fight for prisoners rights (Lifton, 2009). Hence this has made it possible for the prisoners to suffer discrimination in Guantanamo Bay. In situations where the guards harass the prisoners, the cases end up concealed, and there is no justice done for the prisoners (Fitzpatrick, 2003). The prisoners suffer in silent because the racism and violence are twisted, and the government doesn’t practice racism directly. There are always explanations for a new strategy intended to discriminate the terrorists making it impossible for the legislative authority to detect this problem and fight for every human rights in Guantanamo Bay.
Corruption is also on the increase in Guantanamo such that in case of violence is detected; there is a corrupt action to keep everything in silent. Thus this makes it hard to fight for the prisoners’ rights in Guantanamo Bay since even the government is involved in practicing racism and the prisoners have no department in the government sector to take their complaints and grievances.
References
Anderson, K. (2001). What to do with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda terrorists: a qualified defense of military commissions and United States policy on detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Harv. JL & Pub. Poly, 25, 591.
Bloche, M. G., & Marks, J. H. (2005). Doctors and interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. New EnglandJournal of Medicine, 353(1), 6-8.
Clark, P. A. (2006). Medical ethics at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib: the problem of dual loyalty. TheJournal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 34(3), 570-580.
Column: Nacdl news. (2012). The Champion,
CONTEMPORARY PRACTICE OF THE UNITED STATES RELATING TO INTERNATIONAL LAW: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS: President would like to end Guantanamo bay detentions; criticism and debate regarding U.S. operations there continue. (2006).
Evans, T. (2005). The politics of human rights: A global perspective. Pluto Press.
Fitzpatrick, J. (2003). Speaking law to power: the war against terrorism and human rights. European journal of International Law, 14(2), 241-264.
Fletcher, G. P. (2004). Black Hole in Guantanamo Bay. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 2(1), 121-132.
Fletcher, L. E., & Stover, E. (2009). The Guantanamo Effect: Exposing the consequences of US detention and interrogation practices. University of California Press.
Guantanamo Bay: What next?: Article: Introduction. (2013). Southern Illinois University Law Journal,
Lifton, R. J. (2004). Doctors and torture. New England Journal of Medicine, 351(5), 415-416.
Luban, D. (2002). The war on terrorism and the end of human rights. Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, 22(3), 9-14.
Priest, D. (2005). CIA holds terror suspects in secret prisons. Washington Post, 2(11).