WikiLeaks at risk of degrading treatment | United …

For a mystery of the Internet (or not), a UN public report produced in 2006 went unnoticed for several days on the Web. The usual exercise of clicking on the corresponding link gave an error message and indicated a number, 404. Page12 obtained a copy in PDF format. Its content may explain the anomaly. This is the official UN report on the mistreatment and torture of people incarcerated at the US Guantanamo prison. Just as the United States has requested the extradition of Julian Assange to the United Kingdom, in diplomatic and judicial circles, it is badumed that the UN report becomes a defense argument: to be extradited to the United States. United would be an odious destiny for the founder. from Wikileaks.

The text says in one of its conclusions: "The attempts of the US government to redefine the term" torture "in the context of the fight against terrorism to allow the use of certain techniques of terrorism. 39 interrogation that would not be allowed according to the government.Definition of internationally accepted torture are extremely worrying ". And he adds that these techniques "constitute degrading treatment" with "great suffering", as well as "uncertainties as to the length of detention", "prolonged isolation" and "violation of the right to health".

The report published by the UN Commission on Human Rights was presented by senior officials, all rapporteurs on specific issues: Leila Zerrouigui (arbitrary detention), Leandro Despouy (independence of magistrates and lawyers) , Manfred Nowak (torture), Asma Jahangir (freedom of religion and belief) and Paul Hunt (right to enjoy physical and mental health). They have been advised by specialists such as the Dutchman Theo van Boven, leading jurist in the fight against crimes against humanity committed by the Argentine dictatorship, then in the construction of tools allowing for. investigate these crimes.

The prison, which is supposed to house very dangerous prisoners, welcomed the first detainees in 2002 and is located inside the base located on the territory. She has never returned to Cuba since the United States dominated the island after the independence war of Spain.

George Bush's government was irritated by the activities of the Guantánamo Task Force. He offered to visit the prison but did not allow them to interrogate prisoners. The rapporteurs refused to accept the invitation in these conditions and obtained their information through testimonies of former detainees, complaints addressed to human rights organizations and documents.

As a candidate, Barack Obama used the report in his 2008 campaign. One of his promises was to end the Guantánamo concentration camp. Already as president, he had ratified this goal before the UN, even though he could only reach it partially. During this period, he exchanged letters with the Guantánamo working group, and especially with Argentina Despouy, who worked in this report ad honorem while part of the National Audit Office.

US authorities have consistently rejected accusations that the prison was based on degrading treatment of the human condition and torture. But the recommendation contained in paragraph 96 of the 2006 report stolen these days on the Internet says shamelessly: "The US government must close the Guantanamo Bay detention center without further delay."

On this chart, Assange's 2010 revelations confirmed the extraction of prisoners from Iraq and Afghanistan, to use the typical jargon name of kidnappings and transfers to another part of the world. And in addition to confirming the extractions, the thousands of documents disclosed by Assange have provoked the intensification of the denunciations concerning the illegality of the proceedings.

Once Assange was a refugee at the Embbady of Ecuador in London in 2012, Despouy refused to make a specific reference but spoke of the principles of asylum . In an interview with this newspaper on August 20 of the same year, he said: "This type of problem always raises problems that are not resolved arbitrarily, but with a discretionary part, that is, – say tied to concrete criteria and decisions in one way or another Let 's get to the bottom of the story: Assange asked for asylum after seeing that' s right. he may be the target of persecution, and this persecution is linked to their strong commitment to freedom of expression and the exercise of the right of citizens to be informed. principles that protect the dissemination of American diplomatic cables through Wikileaks. "He added that" asylum is a principle of international law and that it has two sides, one diplomatic and the other. other territorial, but that it must be granted in full by a democratic country ".

Guantánamo Prison was commissioned after the demolition of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

The UN report said that "the obligations incumbent on the United States under international human rights standards also concern detainees at Guantanamo Bay". He also recalled that "all rights do not allow suspension even in exceptional circumstances or during an armed conflict that threatens the life of the nation". Among those who can not be suspended are the right to life and "the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", as set out in the International Covenant on Human Rights. civil and political.

In 2002, the Pentagon (US Department of Defense) approved suffering such as isolation, the use of tension postures, the pose of hoods during interrogations, the 39, clothing removal, light deprivation and auditory stimuli and exploitation. phobias to cause stress. Then another note from the Department of Defense changed some of these questioning methods, at least on paper, but left the modification of sleep schedules or direct deprivation of rest, isolation and manipulation of the environment by changing the temperature or ambient conditions. introducing an unpleasant odor.

After interviewing former detainees, UN experts concluded that the suffering had been severe and that the conditions for legally speaking about torture had been created.

For the working group, the situation is compounded by the fact that in Guantánamo, the executive branch of the United States "plays the role of judge, prosecutor and defense lawyer", which constitutes a violation of the right to a fair trial. One of the points of the text is as follows: "With regard to the right of a person to be heard publicly, the military order authorizes the court, for reasons of" national security "unspecified , to hold trials in secret. " To make matters worse, in 2005, more than 500 detainees alone had been made available to a military commission to try him.

And he warned that one of the serious irregularities was that some prisoners had been transferred from Guantanamo to countries where their physical integrity was in danger. As they spoke in advance of Assange.

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