Foreign inmates who have been held captive for many years without trial in the US military prison and torture facility in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are showing signs of "accelerated ageing," the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has unveiled.
"We're calling on the US administration and Congress to work together to find adequate and sustainable solutions to address these issues," said ICRC's head of delegation for the United States and Canada, Patrick Hamilton.
"Action should be taken as a matter of priority," he further emphasized nearly a month after visiting the military prison back in March following a long, 20-year absence from the infamous American torture facility despite rigorous human violations there.
Most of these violations were attested by numerous US military officers appointed to represent the inmates in court with very limited access to legal resources and "classified" documents to adequately defend the inmates or make a legal case against US military and spy agencies involved in the illegal capture and imprisonment of most of the captives held in the Guantanamo base.
Hamilton said he was "struck by how those who are still detained today are experiencing the symptoms of accelerated ageing, worsened by the cumulative effects of their experiences and years spent in detention."
The senior ICRC official called for detainees to receive adequate mental and physical health care and more frequent family contact, basic rights that US military has brutally refrained to provide for the Guantanamo prisoners.
A Pentagon spokesperson said the department "is currently reviewing the report," without elaborating.
The Guantanamo camp was established by hawkish President George W. Bush in 2002 to hold captive and interrogate under torture foreign terrorism suspects following the highly suspicious September 11, 2001 terror attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people.
The appalling treatment of the foreign captives in Guantanamo came to symbolize the excesses of the purported US "war on terror" because of harsh interrogation and torture methods widely censured by critics......more below
Volker Turk has warned that efforts to advance reparatory justice are facing resistance in “certain quarters,” and urged countries to back Africa’s push.
Reparatory justice for historical crimes, including colonialism, enslavement, and the trade in enslaved Africans, is crucial to dismantling systemic racism, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.
Speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on Tuesday, Turk linked present-day discrimination against people from the continent to the enduring legacy of colonialism and enslavement.
”Racism and dehumanizing rhetoric continue to permeate public institutions, communities, and online platforms,” he said, according to the UN Press Service. Turk noted that “digital technologies, including AI, are reproducing and amplifying existing biases against people of African descent.”
The remarks come weeks after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest...
The US VP had to defend President Trump’s Gaza policy at a rally on a Georgia college campus.
US Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to defend Washington’s policy in Gaza after he was booed and heckled at a key MAGA event on Wednesday.
Co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a conservative student group that has long been seen as a strong support base of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement but is now showing apparent cracks.
Less than 15 minutes into a TPUSA event at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Vance was interrupted by hecklers over US policy in Gaza, with one audience member shouting, “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” As he attempted to respond, others shouted, “You’re killing children!” and “You’re bombing children!”
Vance replied by referring to Trump’s achievements as president, including securing a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, something he said the previous administration of Joe Biden failed to do.
“I ...
Sergey Shoigu has cautioned Finland and the Baltic states against allowing Kiev to use their airspace for attacks on Russia.
Russia would have the right to retaliate if Finland and the Baltic states are deliberately allowing Ukrainian drones to pass through their airspace, Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said on Thursday.
“Recently, there has been an increase in Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia via Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia,” Shoigu told journalists. “As a result, civilians are suffering and significant damage is being caused to civilian infrastructure.”
Either Western air defenses are proving ineffective, or these four countries “deliberately provide their airspace, thereby becoming open accomplices in aggression against Russia,” he added. In the latter case, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the security chief stressed.
In recent weeks, Kiev has intensified drone strikes on ...
