My topic deals with the detention camp located at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Introduction

The US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay on Cuba became well known around the world in early 2002, when international media reported on suspected Taliban fighters and Al-Qaida members interned there. The pictures of shackled prisoners in orange overalls with eyes and ears covered led to worldwide protests by human rights organizations against the prison conditions and raised questions about the status of the prisoners and the application of international law at the military base.

Background

The US administration has maintained that for the past two years the base in Guantanamo Bay was beyond the reach of US Courts. The Supreme Court judgment allows Guantanamo Bay detainees to challenge their detention in US courts. In so fi nding, the Supreme Court rejected the contention that the jurisdiction of the US courts does not apply to Guantanamo Bay, thus challenging the assertion of the US administration that those captured in the 'war on terrorism' as enemy combatants have no rights under the Third Geneva Convention nor rights to petition US Courts. (Sarah Miller Pp. 34)

The Supreme Court ruling is a fundamental step in showing that the Executive will be unable to detain citizens or noncitizens according to Presidential decree alone. The decision thus off ers great cause for optimism that detainees will now be able to have their cases heard through US courts. However, it remains to be seen whether this important opportunity will be fully seized, and how the US Executive will respond to the Supreme Court's decision. The shortcomings of the decision of the Supreme Court as well as lack of critical look into the detentions of prisoners mean that Guantanamo Bay is still in need of a solution that is not only legally sound, but also politically feasible. The OCGG Law Section is presenting such a solution. The use of torture during interrogations is one of the most controversial aspects of the so-called global 'war on terror'. Following the terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, the United States administration developed several 'new' methods for combating the threat of global terrorism. Some policy-makers in Washington argued that America's struggle against Islamist terrorism necessitated that the United States government should not be shackled by previous constraints, especially concerning international law. Central to the United States' struggle against global terrorism since September 2001 has been the detention and interrogation of terrorist suspects. The US administration argued that because detained terrorists were not fighting as lawful combatants, according to the international rules of warfare, those same rules did not need to be applied to them. Given the urgent threat that terrorism posed to innocent US civilian lives, some hard-line policy-makers in Washington advocating a tough counter-terrorist response, argued that in some extreme circumstances, torture should be made permissible to gain intelligence. (Jane Meyer, Ppp. 45-46)

These opinions were supported by some eminent legal academics, such as Alan Dershowitz, who following Jeremy Bentham and notions of the 'lesser evil' and 'greater good', ...