U.N. experts blast U.S. on Guantanamo Bay
June 23, 2005
(CNN) -- Four U.N. human rights experts criticized the U.S. government Thursday for failing to answer a January 2004 request to allow them to visit the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, citing allegations of torture against detainees.
The lack of a definitive answer despite repeated requests suggests that the United States is not willing to cooperate with the United Nations human rights machinery on this issue, said the statement issued at a meeting of U.N. Commission on Human Rights representatives and experts.
A U.S. Defense Department spokesman said the State Department would be responsible for responding to the request. The State Department did not immediately respond to the U.N. group's statement.
The Defense Department's spokesman also said that representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross have visited and checked on detainees at Guantanamo Bay and will continue to do so under the Geneva Conventions.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have criticized the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. Navy base where prisoners from the war on terrorism have been detained. The facility is holding about 500 prisoners. 
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other American officials have defended Guantanamo Bay.
Arguably, no detention facility in the history of warfare has been more transparent or received more scrutiny than Guantanamo, Rumsfeld said last week. 
The United States previously denied a January 2002 request to visit Guantanamo Bay because officials said the U.N. group lacked the confidence to address what [the American government] considered law of armed conflict issues and not international human rights matters, the experts' statement said.
That request and a later one in January 2004 were based on information, from reliable sources, of serious allegations of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees, arbitrary detention, violations of their right to health and their due process rights, according to the statement.
Much of that information came from declassified government documents, the four experts said.
They said they want to visit Guantanamo Bay to examine objectively the allegations first-hand and ascertain whether international human rights standards that are applicable in these particular circumstances are being upheld. ... It is our conviction that no member state of the United Nations is above international human rights law.
The statement said the lack of a U.S. response to the request contrasts with one of its recent recommendations that nations should consider [country visit] requests seriously and in the spirit of cooperation with special procedures, and should respond in a timely manner.
Given the lack of cooperation, the statement said, an investigation will be undertaken based on all credible sources regarding the situation of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the world body's rights watchdog, appoints the experts to three-year terms, according to The Associated Press. The United Nations doesn't compensate these independent investigators for their work, but their expenses are paid, the AP says.
The four human rights experts named in the statement are:
Leandro Despouy, representative on the independence of judges and lawyers; 
Paul Hunt, representative on the right to health; 
Manfred Nowak, representative on torture and other cruel treatment or punishment; 
Leila Zerrougui, chairperson and representative of the working group on arbitrary detention. 
The U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the world body's rights watchdog, appoints the experts to three-year terms, according to The Associated Press. The United Nations doesn't compensate these independent investigators for their work, but their expenses are paid, the AP says.