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Detention and Torture in Guantanamo

Rita Maran’s commentary addresses detention and torture at the Guantanamo military prison and how the facility has emerged as a symbol of the Bush administration’s drive to chisel away at America’s historic laws and statutes, to rebalance the country’s tripartite system of governing, and to commit military aggression against populations abroad. The essay systematically surveys conditions at the camp, the relevant principles and treaties in international human rights law, the role of the United Nations, the Geneva Conventions, U.S. law, three pertinent Supreme Court cases, and the actions of the Bush administration and the Congress. She concludes that torture is morally wrong, and legally a crime; thus, citizens of the U.S. must never again be complicit when its or any government stoops far below minimal human rights in the moral and legal domains.

Guantanamo, international law, torture, George W. Bush administration

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 33, No. 4 (2006): 151-181