Guantanamo breaches right to health, says UN

Harsh treatment in the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay has had profound effects on the mental health of many of the detainees and constitutes a breach of their right to health, a joint report by five UN independent experts has concluded.

“The treatment and conditions include the capture and transfer of detainees to an undisclosed overseas location, sensory deprivation and other abusive treatment during transfer; detention in cages without proper sanitation and exposure to extreme temperatures; minimal exercise and hygiene; systematic use of coercive interrogation techniques; and long period of solitary confinement,” it says.

The report to the UN Human Rights Council is by the special rapporteurs on torture, arbitrary detention, judicial independence, freedom of religion, and the right to health. It outlines the conditions that have led to hundreds of acts of self harm; individual and mass suicide attempts; and many hunger strikes.

“The severe mental health consequences are likely to be long term in many cases, creating health burdens on detainees and their families for years to come,” it says.

The special rapporteur on the right to health, Professor Paul Hunt, told reporters, “We were extremely worried about the reports we were receiving about the totality of the conditions and their impact on the mental health of detainees.”

Earlier he told a session of the council that although the US claimed that the prevalence of mental illness in Guantanamo was similar to that in other correctional settings, no evidence supported this. The report showed that the detainees' mental health was worse than elsewhere.

Among the serious and credible reports of violations he had received were:

• Provision of health care had been conditional on cooperation with interrogators

• Health care had been denied

• Detainees had been subjected to treatment without their consent, including drugging and force feeding.

Professor Hunt also put the spotlight on many other systematic violations of ethical standards by health professionals and notes that many of the reports of violations of ethical standards had been confirmed by investigations of the US military.