Robinson again seeks POW status for Guantanamo captives
The United Nations' human rights chief, Mary Robinson, has renewed calls for the US to recognise Taliban and Al-Qaeda captives as prisoners of war.
Speaking in Bern after talks with the Swiss foreign minister, Robinson said the prisoners – being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – were entitled to POW status.
She made clear that the United States was violating the captives’ rights under the Geneva conventions and said Washington should put its objectives before a “competent tribunal” instead of acting unilaterally.
“[People] who had been involved in the conflict in Afghanistan [should] have a presumption of entitlement to prisoner of war status – be they Taliban or Al-Qaeda,” Robinson said, adding that their status “could be challenged by the US or by any other government [in a] competent tribunal under article five of the Geneva Convention”.
The US has refused to recognise the prisoners as POWs, instead describing them as “illegal combatants” – a category not recognised by humanitarian organisations.
Washington maintains that because Al Qaeda prisoners did not represent a legitimate state or government they are not entitled to the protections of the Geneva conventions, which govern the treatment of prisoners in wartime.
Terrorism a shield for human rights violators
Robinson also repeated concerns about the human rights situation in China and the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya.
She said that since September 11, there was a “tendency for governments to characterise human rights violations as combating terrorism, which makes it all the more important that we ensure that combating terrorism is both compatible with and is done in accordance with international human rights standards.”
She rejected suggestions that international human rights law needed to be extended, saying that it had the flexibility “to allow for effective combating of terrorism and maintenance of safeguards for protecting human rights”.
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