Today marks 16 years since the first prisoners entered Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which continues to hold 41 detainees. [1]

The Guantanamo Justice Campaign this morning held a protest in London’s Trafalgar Square demanding that Guantanamo is finally shut down.

Jean Lambert, London’s Green MEP, sent the following message of support and solidarity:

“Just because Guantanamo is rarely mentioned in headlines doesn’t mean that it’s disappeared. As we speak, there remain 41 people locked up in the camp – including five who have been cleared for release by the US.

Since 11th January 2002, the world has changed immensely. We’ve made huge leaps forward in science and technology. Military conflicts have started and ended. There have been three different Presidents in the Oval Office. Yet, Guantanamo remains frozen in time – a relic of the past that leaves a stain on the reputation of the United States.

Everyone , including the detainees in Guantanamo, has the right to fair trial, and to freedom from degrading treatment. These are human rights that are universal and indivisible

That’s why today’s demonstrations are so important. They send a clear message to the detainees that there are people across the globe who are willing to take a stand in defence of the principles of international law and human rights. Out of sight is not out of mind. Detention without trial is a sign of a totalitarian system, not a law-abiding democracy.

We will continue to campaign until Guantanamo shuts down for good and its detainees are charged or released to be with their loved ones, according to international law.”

Notes:

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/11/guantanamo-inmates-claim-trumps-anti-muslim-bias-fuels-their-detention

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In a message supporting a protest organised by the London Guantanamo Campaign, Ms Lambert (pictured with members of the family of London resiedent Shaker Aamer) said: I’m very sorry I cannot be with you today, but I am in Athens speaking on the health-care crisis in Greece – another avoidable tragedy.

This is the 12th year of the existence of Guantanamo. Every year, we mark the anniversary hoping it will be the last time. Hoping that those still detained there will be released or charged and that those charged will be tried in a public, civil court where all the evidence can be heard and tested.

The fact that Guantanamo remains open is a stain on the human rights record of the United States. President Obama must fulfil his pledge to close the camp.

I welcome the recent, small progress. I welcome the decision of the Slovakian Government to take 3 Uighur detainees and wish more EU governments would take such action, as the European Parliament has repeatedly demanded.

The UK still has to bring Shaker Aamer home to his family in London. I still cannot understand why this has not happened – he has been cleared for transfer, he has not been charged – he should be here with those who love him.

Today’s demonstration is important. It shows that those held in Guantanamo are not forgotten and that there are people who believe that international law must be upheld and that human rights must be respected. Guantanamo must close.

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“The fact that he has been neither charged with a crime nor released to come home to his family here in the UK is a stain on the human rights record of the USA,” she said.

Ms Lambert will be attending the rally – organised by the Save Shaker Aamer campaign, from 12 noon tomorrow (Saturday, March 23) – in a bid to collect the 100,000 signatures needed to force a debate on Mr Aamer’s future in the House of Commons.

Shaker Aamer has been held at the notorious prison in Cuba for more than 11 yesrs – despite being charged with no crime, and cleared for release – twice.

Now he is thought to be one of more than 100 inmates on hunger strike in protest at conditions in the prison.

Ms Lambert added: “How can it be that the UK and the USA cannot organise the return of a man cleared for release, to the country willing to take him back and a family that is waiting for him?
“We want Shaker Aamer, cleared for release, back in London with his family.”

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Speaking at a Trafalgar Square vigil to mark 11 years since Mr Aamer’s detention without trial, Ms Lambert says his continued detention was ‘an insult’ to the UK – and a fundamental breach of Mr Aamer’s human rights.

Shaker Aamer has been cleared for release twice – once by President Bush and once by President Obama.

Both the previous Labour Government and the current Coalition Government have given permission for him to come back to Britain and be reunited with his British wife and four children – the youngest of whom he has never even seen.

But he remains in Guantanamo – held because of rules which say he can only be returned to a ‘safe country’, and until the US government can be sure that Mr Aamer will commit no crime in future.

Ms Lambert said: “We are told that current USA law says that he must be returned to a country considered as safe. What an insult to the ‘special relationship’ the UK likes to claim with the US if the UK should not be declared a safe country.

“We are also told that current US law says that they must be sure that Shaker Aamer will commit no future crime here. No-one here tonight can promise, hand-on-heart, that they will never commit a crime: it is an impossible promise. But we should remember that Shaker Aamer has committed no crime, nor has any former detainee at Guantanamo released back to the UK committed a crime.”

She added: “How can it be that the UK and the USA cannot organise the return of a man cleared for release, to the country willing to take him back and a family that is waiting for him?

“We want Shaker Aamer, cleared for release, back in London with his family. “

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Thank you for the invitation to be here today, but no thanks to the US Government who make it necessary for us to be here again, calling for the closure of Guantanamo.

Every year I hope that this will be the last time we have to hold this event. I think we all felt particularly confident when Obama made his commitment to close Guantanamo in 2009. But I had not really understood the resistance there would be within Congress and Senate: how they had bought into the “exceptional situation” argument, after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, which seemed to mean that international and national law was not equipped to deal with crimes such as murder and conspiracy. I had not understood how willing Congress and Senate would be to accept the Bush Presidency’s virtual rewriting of international Conventions on the conduct of war. Nor had I understood how Congress and Senate would prefer to see detainees kept outside the norms of justice in order to appease local fears concerning the transfer of detainees to Stateside detention facilities.

I believe we are also disappointed that the other Governments of democratic states have been so unwilling to assist the United States by helping to find alternative arrangements for detainees: those in need of humanitarian protection, those who cannot go back to their country of origin due to the situation there (many are from Yemen, for example) and not even those “cleared for release” years ago. None have been resettled since we stood protesting a year ago.

EU Member States have accepted only 26 men over the years: that includes those who already had connections with the EU country concerned, such as those now back in the UK who had international protection status here.

Of course, to our very deep sorrow and anger, we still have a missing London resident – Shakar Aahmer, cleared for release, still in Guantanamo.

The European Parliament is clear that Member States should assist the USA by taking detainees: we said this in 2009 and again in a resolution on anti-terrorism strategy in December last year. I am sure it will be said again at a meeting I am co-hosting later this month with Sara Ludford and our Portuguese colleague, Ana Gomes.

The EP’s Civil Liberties Committee is also doing a report to follow up on the so-called CIA Flights report we published in 2007 and to look at what has happened and has yet to happen, in EU Member States implicated in the transfer, detention and maltreatment (including torture) of some detained in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the USA.

But there are other issues related to this country to which we should pay attention.

In the UK, we have also seen the creep of so-called exceptional measures being seen as “normal”, not least the use of so-called “secret evidence”, where those accused or detained cannot see the full evidence against them. This means that they cannot challenge the evidence, cannot instruct their Council properly so cannot obtain a fair hearing. There are currently 21 areas where such evidence may be used.

The Government consultation on the Green Paper on Justice and Security closed yesterday: we need to follow what comes from this – challenge any proposals which make it more difficult for individuals to have a fair trial and which stop evidence of wrong-doing by authorities coming to light. Some analysts have said that some of the proposed measures could be more restrictive than seen in Guantanamo, for the detainees there…

We need to stand up for the importance of Human Rights, even when it is “inconvenient” or “embarrassing” for the Government.

We have to resist “rebalancing”, rewriting or stepping back from international Human Rights norms in the name of effectively combating terrorism.

We have to remember that the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy recognises that Human Rights compliance while countering terrorism is an indispensible part of a successful strategy to combat terrorism. Our Government and the American Government have signed up to this. The Strategy represents a clear affirmation by all UN Member States that effective counter-terrorism measures and the protection of human rights are not conflicting, but rather complementary and mutually reinforcing goals {1}.

There is another reason why Guantanamo is such a scar on the Human Rights reputation of the USA: it is completely counterproductive to the goals that the USA says it seeks to achieve.

Human Rights are universal, indivisible and cannot be compromised if we really want to tackle terrorism. That is why Human Rights must be upheld and Guantanamo closed.

The Strategy therefore identifies respect for human rights for all, and the rule of law, as one of its four pillars and as the fundamental basis of the fight against terrorism.

In Pillar 1, the Strategy also recognises that compliance with human rights is necessary in order to address the long-term conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, which include the lack of rule or law and violations of human rights, national and religious discrimination, political exclusion, socio-economic marginalisation and lack of good governance. While making it clear that none of these conditions can excuse or justify terrorism, (Alex Conte: ICJ 28th September 2011)

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UK Green MEP, Jean Lambert has called for the release of people detained without charge or trial and for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, and gave her support to Cageprisoners when she joined the conference ‘Shaer Aamer Detainee 239: A South London Man In Guantanamo.

Jean, who has been named top MEP for her work on Justice and Human Rights, said that the continuing use of Guantanamo demonstrated utter disrespect for human rights and commented; “Everyone has the right to access a fair trial and humane conditions yet Guantanamo Bay ignores this completely.

“By continuing the use of Guantanamo the US has effectively given the green light for other regimes to detain prisoners and conduct unacceptable torture like activities.

“The British Government has a responsibility to ensure the safety of British residents remaining in the centre and bring an end to such horror for both them and their families. It is time to close Guantanamo and either release those detained or charge and try them in civilian
courts.”

ENDS

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