[Peace-discuss] Fwd: US court decision on terror detainees sets 'dangerous precedent' - UN rights expert

[Sarah Carsey]

--- UN News Service <UNNews at un.org> wrote:
> From: "UN News Service" <UNNews at un.org>
> To: <news5 at list.un.org>
> Subject: US COURT DECISION ON TERROR DETAINEES SETS
> 'DANGEROUS PRECEDENT' - UN RIGHTS EXPERT
> Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 18:01:17 -0500
> 
> US COURT DECISION ON TERROR DETAINEES SETS
> 'DANGEROUS PRECEDENT' - UN RIGHTS EXPERT
> New York, Mar 12 2003  6:00PM
> A United Nations expert on judicial independence
> warned today that a "dangerous precedent" could be
> set in the wake of a ruling in the United States
> that said terror suspects held prisoner at
> Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba do not have the
> right to hearings in US courts.
> 
> Dato' Param Cumaraswamy, Special Rapporteur of the
> UN Commission on Human Rights on the independence of
> judges and lawyers, expressed concern following
> yesterday's decision by the US Court of Appeals for
> the District of Colombia Circuit, which ruled that
> suspected Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters held at
> Guantanamo Bay were aliens outside US sovereign
> territory and not protected by the US Constitution.
> 
> Mr. Cumaraswamy said the decision seemed to imply
> that the government of a sovereign State "could
> lease a piece of land from a neighbouring State, set
> up a detention camp, arrest suspects of terrorism
> from another jurisdiction, send them to this camp,
> [and then] deny them their legal rights - including
> principles of due process generally granted its own
> citizens - on grounds that the camp is physically
> outside its jurisdiction."
> 
> "By such conduct, the Government of the United
> States, in this case, will be seen as systematically
> evading application of domestic and international
> law so as to deny these suspects their legal
> rights," Mr. Cumaraswamy said, adding that the
> implication of the decision were "far-reaching" and
> could set a "dangerous precedent."
> 
> Calling on the US Government to comply with
> international human rights, refugee and humanitarian
> law, Mr. Cumaraswamy said the "war on terrorism
> cannot possibly be won by the denial of legal
> rights, including fundamental principles of due
> process of those merely suspected of terrorism."
>  2003-03-12 00:00:00.000 
> 
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