Guantanamo Bay is a jail located in Guantanamo Province at the southeastern end of Cuba. While it is physically in Cuba, the jail is owned and run by Americans and considered to be on American soil. As in all parts of the world, when there is a location considered to be the soil of a specific country, the laws of that country must be adhered to on that property. Thus, Cuban laws do not apply at Guantanamo Bay; American ones do. American soldiers man the prison, and it has come to the public’s attention that what happens behind the walls of Guantanamo Bay are acts of pure torture with little to no justification. The first method of torture that Guantanamo Bay used on a detainee was Abu Ghraib’s tactics. These tactics are crude and humiliating and have no positive or worthwhile impacts on the prisoners and their rehabilitation or personal progress. Instead, they are put in place for no reason other than to demean. Some would argue that these tactics are used to “punish” detainees for the crimes they committed; however, by American law, being arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to time in prison is the punishment. No where in the American Constitution does it allow for jails to take matters of punishment into their own hands. While some incidents and examples of torture at Guantanamo Bay have come to light, there is so much that is still unclear. What really happens behind those walls? Will the citizens of America and the world ever have access to unbiased and truthful documentation of the lives of these prisoners? If America has nothing to be ashamed of, why are the happenings of Guantanamo Bay such a secret?
The methods of torture used directly violate The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an international document accepted by the United Nations and adopted by forty-eight countries, including the United States of America. This binds the United States in a promise to adhere to these laws and freedoms with all its citizens on American grounds. All in all, the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay is unethical and needs to be stopped through awareness and advocacy as it violates fundamental and individual human rights as listed on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, namely Articles 1, 3, and 5.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood (cite).” The treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay violates this first and basic international human right by depriving the inmates the right to live in the same way American citizens outside of the jail compound are treated. Prisoners are tortured in a variety of ways that seriously affect their physical and mental health and thus keep them at a disadvantage. The violation of the rights to one’s health disrespects one’s inherent dignity which is unacceptable by American law. The laws that Americans abides by outside of prison need to be abided by within the walls of their jails as well. But they aren’t. For instance, soldiers at Guantanamo Bay often force-feed their detainees when they go on a food-strike. Force-feeding is when a soldier forces one of these prisoners to eat against their will by handcuffing the prisoner’s arms and legs to a chair and surround him with security guards to restrain him if he moves during the feeding procedure. Then, a plastic tube holding a food supplement is forced through the nose, down the throat, and into the stomach. This painful process happens several times over the course of two hours to ensure the prisoner has had enough to eat and endured a significant amount of pain. Yasiin Bey a.k.a. Mos Def, a famous and successful rap artist, went to Guantanamo Bay as a volunteer to better understand what this form of torture involves and create awareness through Stand Fast for Justice. The process, which happens twice a day, was so excruciating, Bey couldn’t last longer than two minutes. “There are currently 120 detainees on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay. 44 of them are being force-fed against their will. Bey described a burning feeling and called the process simply “unbearable”(cite). American citizens are entitled to their personal freedoms, including their freedom to decide what they eat if they choose to eat at all. An act similar to this performed on American soil outside of an American jail would land several people in prison as it breaks several laws. Force-feeding is only one example of one of many inhuman torture tactics at Guantanamo Bay. Aside from stripping these prisoners of their right to live equally to their fellow citizens, these acts of torture also strip them of their right to life, liberty and security as listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person (cite).” In Guantanamo Bay, prisoners have no such rights. Their lives are constantly being baited in front of them. Prisoners are harassed and humiliated in front of other detainees by soldiers and other inmates. A simple example of this torture at Guantanamo Bay is a combination of forced nudity and rough takedown. This tactic involves soldiers placing hoods on male detainees forcing them to appear nude in front of women and sexually and verbally humiliating them throughout the process. It is unclear what this tactic achieves aside from purely stripping prisoners of their self-respect and dignity. Meanwhile, on free, American soil, exposing your private parts to anyone is unacceptable and prohibited by law; it is called “indecent exposure”. Why then, are American soldiers permitted to participate in what would be considered a crime outside the walls of the jail? These acts of torture, used to humiliate instead of rehabilitate the inmates, is justified by the idea that they no longer are citizens of the country and therefore these basic human rights do not apply to them. Another way Guantanamo violates the security of person is by forcing detainees to urinate on themselves without taking their clothes off. After they have done so, they are not permitted to go clean themselves and are not given new clothing. They have no choice but to sit in their own urine and stench. These are only two tactics used in this prison, and both severely violate the UN’s basic and international human rights. They strip the detainees of their dignity, self-respect, and their health/security while giving soldiers an immense amount of unwarranted power. It is also very directly stated in Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that all citizens of the world have the right to live without torture for any reason (cite). They are entitled to live free of inhuman and/or degrading treatment. All of the methods used inside Guantanamo Bay violate these articles, and the soldiers are not being held accountable. This is unacceptable, and like Yasiin Bey, free citizens should promote awareness and intolerance to injustices at Guantanamo Bay.
There is a clear line that divides right and wrong; it is everybody’s responsibility to ensure that their elected and democratic governments are stand up for justice and maintain not only their national rights, but also abide by the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. What happens at Guantanamo Bay to the prisoners is cruel and beyond unacceptable and without the support of the citizens of the world and organizations like the UN and Amnesty International, there is no hope for these inmates. Even inmates are humans; the misconception that they don’t deserve rights is flawed. Punishment is not the same as rehabilitation, and torture is not a means to an end.