Shut down Guantánamo Bay
Online action
Shut Guantánamo Bay 
Sign Amnesty's online petition.
The 5th anniversary of the opening of Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay in January is a particularly abhorrent blot on the already heavily inked copy book of the United States and other Western countries. The continued and very public existence of Camp X-Ray, represents one of the most serious rollbacks of human rights and international law in our time. It undermines all individual liberties and protections promised at the foundation of the United Nations in 1945, as well as violating much older standards like the right to a free trial.
Although UK citizens have now been returned from Camp X-Ray, nine British residents are still undergoing routine torture in the camp, simply because the UK Government will not ask for them back. Recent reports have stated that one, Bisher al-Rawi, who has been in solitary confinement for several years, is gradually loosing his mind. Others are denied access to treatments they need to keep serious conditions like diabetes at bay. Prisoners in the Camp are subjected to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation, shackling and sensory deprivation, very long periods of isolation, and censorship of their letters.
The irony of the situation is that the British government claims it cannot take them back because there is not enough evidence against them to keep them under the sort of close surveillance that the US government says is required for their release. Like so many others in the Camp, their innocence is the very reason they continue to be kept there. The evidence is so flimsy against some of the inmates, like Bisher, that he has already been questioned by British authorities and released before being arrested, with a British tip-off, in Gambia. The British government says that these residents own governments must take responsibility for the British residents lies with their country of origin - despite the fact that many of the residents are asylum seekers. The British government won't intervene to help Omar Deghayes, for instance, leaving him to the Libyan government, which is responsible for killing his father and issuing threats against Omar himself.
Unfortunately, Guantanamo Bay is just the tip of the iceberg. The conditions which prisoners tolerate their are much better than the secretive torture camps which the CIA and Western Governments have sent people to in the Middle East and Africa. Extraordinary rendition refers to the practice of states transporting suspects to states not bound by such rules with the aim of gaining intelligence. There is substantial evidence that the UK government has allowed CIA flights to use British airports, and has knowledge of the US secret prisons.
These development represent a violation of international law, and a serious threat to the freedom of all of us. Learn more and take action:
Close down Guantánamo Bay
Take action now: sign Amnesty International's online petition.
You can also support the work of Reprieve, which fights for the life of people facing the death penalty, and is working on the cases of the eight UK residents in Camp X-Ray. Additionally, Liberty is campaigning against Extraordinary Rendition.