The UN human rights watchdog has expressed deep disappointment that the Obama administration has not lived up to its promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, where individuals continue to be detained indefinitely in clear breach of international law.
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said with its failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, the US government has entrenched a system of arbitrary detention.
The UN rights chief said she was also disturbed at the failure to ensure accountability for serious human rights violations, including torture, that took place there. She said it is ten years since the US Government opened the prison at Guantanamo, and now three years since 22 January 2009, when the President ordered its closure within twelve months.
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, prisoners suspected of being al Qaeda members or supporters were transported to Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
In 2002, President George Bush made it the central prison for suspects considered unlawful enemy combatants in the war on terror.
