MSWPG7213 SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS OF HUMAN RIGHTS - ASSESSMENT 3 RESEARCH ESSAY

War on Detainees

On September 11, 2001, a terrorist group (Al-Qaeda) from Afghanistan attacked the United States of America. The terrorist group hijacked aeroplanes and hit the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City and the Pentagon House outside Washington, D.C. The attack left approximately 3,000 people dead leading to the declaration of the War on Terror by the US president George W. Bush. The War on Terror or the Global War on Terrorism is an international military campaign initiated by the US with support from its allies targeting terrorist groups such as the Al-Qaeda and states that support or harbour the terrorists like Afghanistan. The War on Terror demonstrates a changing attitude of America as it fights the enemy within and without to secure itself from terrorist attacks. However, this has resulted in the reorientation of international law and human rights in relation to the detainees of terror.

The War on Terror has led to the detention of many people on the basis of being dangerous. The US lacks an appropriate mechanism to test the dangerousness of an individual but informs its decision based on hearsay testimony or similar unreliable evidence (Walen & Venzke, 2007). The mass detention of terror suspects inside and outside the United States compromises the rights of the detainees. Detention is an illustration of a denied justice for the detainees as the Bush administration argued on non-residents and constitutional restrictions. The Bush administration assumed an extreme position on the imprisonment of suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station by denying them contact with the outside world and judicial review of their imprisonment (Resnik, 2010). The Supreme Court misread Johnson v. Eisentrager by rejecting the claim that non-residents aliens benefit from constitutional protections of their liberty (Piret, 2008). This is a violation of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution which provides the right of liberty and prevents the government from detaining a person for committing a crime unless when found guilty after the due process of the law.

After the 9/11 terrorist attack in the United States of America, the American government launched a detention spree that led to the arrest of persons considered dangerous or suspect of terror. This is done in abject violation of human rights since there is no due process to grant them a fair hearing and determine their guiltiness or involvement in terrorist activities. The detentions occur with an outright objection to the statutorily-granted right. This has led to the detention of many suspects including 375 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 620 from Afghanistan, and 18,000 from Iraq (Eppinger, 2013). According to the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, some countries have taken the fight against terrorism by engaging in activities that infringe the basic standards of a fair trial or implemented counter-terrorism measures that limit the access to the judicial system. The Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and Plan of Action require states to develop and maintain an effective national criminal justice system based on the rule of law to ensure any person engaging in terrorist activities through financing, planning, preparation, or perpetration is brought to justice on the principle to prosecute with respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms (United Nations Counter-Terrorism, 2019). The detentions done by the US do not follow the due process implying that they are ineffective, unfair, and do not respect the rule of law.