The pressure in Guantanamo Bay: The epicenter of torture
Introduction
At present, the world faces a series of dilemmas, due to globalization, it is increasing ‘. That is why the study of ethical dimensions in international politics is indispensable, especially when scenarios such as the one lived in Guantanamo prison. This penitentiary center is owned by the United States and is located in the homonym city in Cuba, at the US Naval Station. This prison was created after the attacks of September 11, 2001, is considered one of the most terrible in the world and they remain mainly held to people accused of performing acts of terrorism (Pellini, S.F.).
Usually prisoners are detained without having received a formal accusation, without access to lawyers, and therefore without a fair trial (Dabezies, S.F.).Several international organizations have denounced cases of torture committed by military towards prisoners, which violate the Geneva Agreements against torture and will be detailed below. In addition, several times the Cuban government has demanded its closure; However, the United States has been reluctant to do so. This is because their war against terror is justification, and ensure that when dealing with terrorists; They should not be considered as the same as the thousands of innocent who die from their actions every day. Therefore, for them, it is justified that the United States authorities violate the human rights of prisoners, since they have violated the basic right to other people’s life. However, although the position of the United States may seem ethically correct, at least in its perspective, and it is increasing condemn and consider how inhuman. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the international community to use all possible means to stop impunity in the acts of torture that are perpetrated by the United States.
The prison dilemma
As mentioned above, Guantanamo prison has been the headquarters of innumerable acts against the human rights of prisoners that are being held there and have been committed by US authorities. Well, as Amnesty International denounced in 2012, "the detention center has been a matter of concern for the serious human rights violations committed there, including arbitrary detention, secret detention, torture and other ill -treatment, extraordinary deliveries and unfair judgments" , so the organization demanded that this situation be eradicated, which did not happen. Confidential reports of the International Red Cross Committee, reported psychological and physical abuses, also detected mental illnesses in prisoners produced by the stress to which they are subjected, especially by long solo confinements (Hervas, 2004). The United States has made displays of being an example of democracy power for the world (Riestra, 2016), however it keeps an installation open in which dozens of people are still retained under reprehensible conditions. Later, in 2017, Amnesty International continued to demand President Obama, shortly before leaving office, to fulfill his promise to end the arrests in Guantanamo and to do so according to the United States’s obligations regarding the rights of rights in matters of rights humans. This plays the prison was one of his main campaign proposals, which never happened.
In the history of this prison, 770 people have been held, and it has been considered as a “global symbol of torture, abuse, detention without trial in a place without law” (exterior newspaper, s.F.). "Detentions radically contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been carried out, and the United States obligations regarding human rights and the recommendations of the UN bodies that monitor their compliance" (Amnesty International, 2017). Since, as for arbitrary arrests, article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes that: “No one will be subject to arbitrary interference in their private life, his family, his domicile or his correspondence, nor of attacks on his honor or to your reputation. Every person has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”(United Nations, 1948). Which has been totally violated by the United States authorities by stopping and sanctioning people who are now in Guantanamo, as well as article 9 that states that “no one may be arbitrarily detained, prisoner or banished” (United Nations, 1948 ). However, their way of evading international laws in some way is not making use of the correct term, since “they are not officially called as prisoners or prisoners so as not to grant them a legal status of prisoners of war that they lack. They are officially detained ’(Caño, 2007).Inside the base, some of the torture techniques used include: sexual aggression, humiliation, sleep deprivation and sensory, isolation, execution simulations; Forced medication and psychological techniques (The Justice Campaign, 2016). The guards do not know the names of the prisoners (on official instructions that should be), they only add up to them for their numbers, it is not allowed to develop any type of affective link with them. Nor are they authorized to answer the questions asked by prisoners. They consider that all they need to know is what they have to do and who is in command (Caño, 2007).
This undoubtedly represents a degrading act and that attentive against their dignity and recognition as human beings. In addition, there is enormous censorship with respect to prison, with the aim of preventing it from knowing what happens there actually (Riesra, 2016) and thus prevent the country from being sanctioned. On January 1, 2017, the United States joined the UN Human Rights Council, where it promised to “defend the rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, fulfill its obligations contracted by virtue of human rights and human rights treaties collaborate significantly with the UN Treaty Bodies ”(Amnesty International, 2017). But when preserving a prison as Guantanamo, it is clear that he has not fulfilled this commitment.
Of course the facts raised in Guantanamo represent a huge ethical dilemma for the international community. The double moral of the United States is undeniable; While promising to defend human rights, in turn it is in force and defends a prison where violations are made to protect these same rights to protect. The most serious thing is that international organizations and institutions cannot do anything directly and limit themselves to denouncing and condemning what happens there. Meanwhile, the current president of the United States, Donald Trump openly assured in January of this year, that ‘terrorists are illegal combatant enemies’, which ‘must be treated as the terrorists who are’ (Clarín, 2018), even signed a Decree for the Guantanamo prison, where 41 prisoners are currently, remain in force. He even stated that “if necessary they will be annihilated, if possible they will be arrested and interrogated’ (Clarín, 2018) is the emblem, of the violation of rights and freedoms on the pretext of preserving security (Carnicero, 2009); The military torture, supposedly, in the name of the State, and as Reyes Mate affirms, it does not respond in the same way before the political crime that before torture is seen in the crime a threat to the most personal and, in torture, An instrument of the State, although exaggerated, destined to protect lives (2009).
The justification they offer lacks logic, then, if the objective of Guantanam They deserve "a decent treatment and their actions will cause the loss of thousands of lives, their human rights should continue to be respected. The act of torture cannot be justified for any reason, even if it saves hundreds of lives, even if prisoners are a threat to the United States or for the world, they remain human and must be treated as such. All people must have the same international value, Guantanamo prisoners must be treated like any other prisoner in the United States, they are human beings and deserve to be protected by the same rights as all others.
conclusion
The atrocious acts carried out in the Guantanamo prison should undoubted.F.), affirmation that is extremely strong and unfortunately certain. And despite the international conviction and the latent danger that this represents, the international community is tied from hands in the face of such a situation, since an attempt to eliminate said jail would be attempt against US sovereignty, despite the fact that this jail goes against of international pacts signed by the United States, since there are not enough evidence or legal capacity to be able to do something about it. It is then, where international relations have to work more about it, exert pressure and find a way to punish such acts even though they are protected by their "war law" and their imminent hegemonic power.End the impunity at the international arena is one of our tasks, especially if you want provides “for human rights violations if they were offered by other governments [therefore,] the rest of the world should not accept them from the United States.”(2017).
References
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