Red Cross delegate: Guantanamo inmates show signs of ‘accelerated aging’ News
TayebMEZAHDIA / Pixabay
Red Cross delegate: Guantanamo inmates show signs of ‘accelerated aging’

A top International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegate Friday said that inmates held by the US at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center are experiencing “symptoms of accelerated [aging].” Patrick Hamilton, the head of the ICRC’s US and Canada delegation, visited Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in March and says that the inmates’ symptoms are consistent with those he observed at Guantanamo in 2003. 

The US started holding terrorism suspects, designated enemy combatants, in 2002.  Since the detention camp’s establishment, it has attracted widespread criticism for its conditions, lack of due process rights for detainees and the use of torture.

Hamilton said that the accelerated aging symptoms he witnessed were “worsened by the cumulative effects of [detainees’] experiences and years spent in detention.” He called for authorities to adopt a healthcare approach that would “[account] for both deteriorating mental and physical conditions,” which would include changes in infrastructure, detention rules, and contact with families.

Guantanamo Bay has been called a constitutional “enigma” as detainees were classed as “enemy combatants” and held outside of the US, raising questions as to which constitutional rights they do and do not have. Some groups, like the Center for Constitutional Rights, claim that Eighth Amendment protections apply to detainees, which would guarantee them access to adequate healthcare during their detentions. Multiple Supreme Court cases have also ensured the right of US and non-US detainees to challenge their detention and designation as enemy combatants or terrorism suspects that the president “has authority to detain.”

US President Joe Biden’s administration has transferred five detainees out of Guantanamo so far in 2023. This is largely a result of former President Barack Obama’s Executive Order 13567, which established the Periodic Review Board to periodically examine whether detainees remain a threat to the United States.

Amid repeated calls for Guantanamo’s closure, 30 detainees remain, with 16 eligible for transfer.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in Six Days' War

On November 22, 1967, the UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied during the Six Days' War, and for respect of the right of all States in the area to "live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries." Read Resolution 242, which remains a cornerstone of efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East.

President Kennedy assassinated, VP Lyndon Johnson sworn inin

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Later that day, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was later tasked with leading a commission to investigate the assassination. President Johnson received the final report of the Warren Commission on September 24, 1964. Read the Warren Commission Report.