“Cruel and inhumane”: UN Special Rapporteur calls for closure of Guantanamo After 9 years: 8 soldiers arrested for kidnapping students in Mexico

“I have found that the suffering of the detainees after two decades of imprisonment is deep and long-lasting,” said Fionnuala Ni Aolain, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in counter-terrorism. Speaking Monday at the presentation of her report to journalists in New York, she called for the infamous camp to be closed.

Previously, Ni Aolain was the first UN Special Rapporteur to visit the detention center, with official approval from the US. She thanked the United States for the permission and stressed that she was given full access. You also received “significant improvements” compared to previous health reports.

In February, the US Department of Defense said that more than two decades after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, 34 prisoners are still being held in the Cuban prison camp. It was built after the terrorist attacks during the administration of then Republican President George W. Bush to detain suspected Islamic terrorists without trial.

At one point, nearly 800 people were held in the camp, which is located at the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay. Human rights organizations have long demanded the closure – after the presentation of the UN report, Amnesty International reiterated this demand. (sda/dpa)