According to the Human Rights Council This relates to Ní Aoláin’s ‘technological arrival’. He first goes to Washington and then to a detention center in Cuba. In the coming months, he will speak with 9/11 victims and relatives, as well as former inmates of the camp. Ní Aoláin then makes a closing statement.

Ní Aoláin is a so-called Special Rapporteur. He is a member of the UN. nor employed and paid by any Government. His reporting concerns the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the fight against terrorism.

Guantanamo Bay played a pivotal role in the US war on terror. In total, around 800 terror suspects have been detained there since 2002. The most famous is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is believed to be the mastermind of 9/11.

Many suspects have been imprisoned for years without trial. At Guantanamo Bay, which is not a US territory, suspects do not have the same rights as prisoners in the United States. Additionally, suspects were tortured there, in what the US euphemistically described as ‘enhanced interrogation methods’.

Can’t close

It ended in 2009 under President Barack Obama. He also concluded that Gitmo One of his election promises. But he could not fulfill it. US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to keep the detention center open longer than Obama did.

There are currently 35 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Twenty prisoners can be freed if another country wants to take them. Under US law, Guantanamo detainees cannot be transferred to the US. Two prisoners have been sentenced, 10 are under investigation, and three others have not been charged but have not been allowed to leave.

Current US President Joe Biden also wants to close Guantanamo Bay, but concrete steps have yet to be taken. In January, 150 international organizations sent a letter to Biden calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay.