– Ministry of Foreign Affairs DPRK –
(mfa.gov.kp, July 11, 2023)
Recently, the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism has paid a technical visit to Guantanamo detention facility and issued a report acknowledging that the U.S. has committed human rights violation such as torture, arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment against “suspected terrorists”.
The report pointed out that hundreds of Muslim detainees are being subject to human rights abuses in Guantanamo detention facility and such abuses run counter to the “Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)” to which the U.S. is a signatory. Then it continued as follows:
The conditions of the detention facility constitute a violation of the right to available, adequate, and acceptable health care. It means that the U.S. has contravened its obligations to guarantee the right to life and the freedom from torture and ill-treatment.
This has resulted in the significant deterioration of the physical and mental health of detainees, compounding post-traumatic symptoms and other severe health consequences.
These structural deficiencies amount to, at minimum, torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and the U.S. government’s failure to provide torture rehabilitation also squarely contravenes its obligations under the Convention.
She also condemned the U.S. government for neither issuing an apology nor making reparation, despite having previously authorized and enabled torture practices and serious violations of international human rights.
Human rights violations are still ongoing in the detention facility as the U.S. government has not instituted robust legal and administrative safeguards to prevent future abuses.
Reiterating that any violation of international law gives rise to an obligation to make reparation and that there is no statute of limitations for gross and systematic violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, she demanded that the U.S. government immediately closes detention facility and brings to account all those who ordered, enabled, facilitated, carried out, suppressed knowledge of, and obscured torture.
In conclusion, she stressed that the U.S. government must ensure accountability before international community for all human rights violations against international law including extraordinary rendition, arbitrary detention, systematic torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment.