(Washington, DC) – The Obama administration should increase detainee transfers from Guantanamo Bay following passage of a defense bill on December 12, 2014, that preserves fewer transfer restrictions. President Barack Obama obtained loosened transfer restrictions from the US Congress in the December 2013 defense measure, but has not fully taken advantage of them in the past year.
“President Obama should move towards closing Guantanamo by accelerating detainee releases,” said Laura Pitter, senior national security counsel at Human Rights Watch. “Congress hasn’t made closing Guantanamo any easier but, by not enacting new restrictions, it has left the door open for the administration to act.”
For years, Congress has imposed restrictions on the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo, which the Obama administration said prevented it from closing the detention facility. The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the first time eased those restrictions, requiring only that the secretary of defense determine a transfer is in the national security interest of the United States and show that he weighed specified factors prior to making that determination.
The 2014 bill, the NDAA for fiscal year 2015, preserves those changes. One version of the bill included a ban on transfers to Yemen, but the final version approved by Congress did not. However, it renews the ban on moving detainees to the US against Obama administration wishes. While Obama has repeatedly pledged to close the Guantanamo detention facility, it is not clear that he is prepared to use his authority vigorously to do so, Human Rights Watch said.
Despite the loosened transfer restrictions during 2014, the rate of transfers from Guantanamo has not increased significantly. In 2013, 11 detainees were released, while so far in 2014, 19 detainees have been released, 13 of them since October. Some 136 detainees remain at Guantanamo, 67 of whom have been cleared for transfer, most back in 2009 by an interagency task force and some even earlier by the Bush administration. Of the remaining 69, only 7 face formal charges in the fundamentally flawed military commissions system, including 5 co-defendants in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Another 3 have been convicted. And 23 others are slated for prosecution but have yet to be charged. The Obama administration asserts the remaining 36 are “too dangerous” to release, yet concedes it has insufficient evidence to prosecute them.
International law bans prolonged, indefinite detention without trial. If there is evidence that detainees have committed crimes, they should be charged in courts that comport with international fair trial standards. If not, they should be released, Human Rights Watch said.
“The US has held many of the Guantanamo detainees for nearly 13 years without charge or trial, flouting international law and basic principles of justice,” Pitter said. “If Obama is going to close Guantanamo as he promised, he should act before Congress enacts any new restrictions.”
