Children detained at Guantanamo should be released

[WASHINGTON] - Amnesty International today called for the immediate release of the children in detention at Camp X-ray in Guantanamo Bay. If the US military will not release the children, then they should be charged with a recognizable offense, provided with full judicial safeguards applying to youthful offenders, and transferred to a suitable juvenile detention facility, the organization stated.

"Amnesty International is deeply disturbed that the US, under the assumption that they are 'enemy combatants,' is holding children at Guantanamo Bay," said Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. "The detention of children in these circumstances is particularly repugnant and flouts basic principles for the protection of children under international law."

Most of the 600-plus detainees in Guantanamo are confined to tiny cells for virtually 24 hours a day and reportedly allowed to exercise in shackles for only 15 minutes twice a week -- conditions which in their totality Amnesty International believes can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. These conditions are of concern for all detainees, but are particularly shocking when applied in the case of juveniles -- some of whom may have been held there for many months, with no end in sight.

Even if the children are held in a less restrictive section of the facility, the general conditions of their detention, coupled with the denial of access to courts, families or lawyers, is in serious breach of the special protections that should be afforded to juvenile detainees. Amnesty International is particularly disturbed by reports about the interrogation of the children. There are clear international safeguards indicating that children in custody should have access to lawyers at every stage of the proceeding, as well as to family members or a legal guardian.

The United States last year ratified the treaty on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which reaffirms that "the rights of children require special protection," and obliges state parties to ensure that children within their jurisdiction who have been used in hostilities should be provided with all appropriate assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and their social reintegration. If, in fact, the children were captured during the armed hostilities in Afghanistan, detaining them as "enemy combatants" in indefinite legal limbo and subjecting them to interrogation without even the basic safeguards to which they are entitled seems grossly at odds with the United States' commitments under the optional protocol.

• The Guardian: US detains children at Guantanamo Bay  (April 2003)