Features of Human Rights: Human Rights Violations at Guantánamo Bay

 Please use the four features of human rights - that they are universal, interdependent, indivisible, and inalienable - to analyze a historical or contemporary political case that violates or protects human rights. Please note at least one article of the UDHR that was violated or upheld.  The writing should be 300-400 words. 

Known as "the island outside of the law," Guantanamo Bay is a detention facility located in Cuba on land that has been leased to the US for the past 45 years. As of June 2020 there are 40 detainees currently located at the facility, and in the recent years at least nine have died. The article that I read says, "Violations of international law at Guantánamo include illegal and indefinite detention, torture, inhumane conditions, unfair trials (military commissions), and many more.These human rights violations, however, remain unpunished or remedied." 

Universalism:

"Universalism refers to the notion that human rights are universal and should apply to every human being."

I think the theory of universalism need to be applied to the situation in Guantanamo Bay, as well as around the world. These people are being held here without the chance of trial, and many are likely to be there for the rest of their lives. The evidence against many of the prisoners there lacks substance, and the fact that they are held there without a chance of prove themselves innocent or guilty goes against basic human rights, not to mention the whole torture thing. 

Inalienable: 

By definition, inalienability involves the “inability of something to be taken from or given away by the possessor”.

With the theory that rights are inseparable from statehood and citizenship, the United States has taken it upon themselves to deliberately use the people at Guantanamo bay as alienable possessions. The right to a fair trail, and offten times privacy and the right to not be tortured has been taken away from the inmates at Guantanamo Bay. These rights are being taken away from the inmates, and is a violation of the Human Rights Declaration.   

Indivisible: 

"Turning to indivisibility, this principle maintains that the implementation of all rights simultaneously is necessary for the full functioning of the human rights system."

When I think of this, I think about if the United States could commit atrocities like what happened at Guantanamo and turn a blind eye, what else are they doing? The United States as a well functioning well developed country should be able, at this time, to support all human rights equally as a government and not prioritize one over the other. This means that all humans should be supported under the Human RIghts Declaration no matter race or ethnicity, no matter the evidence held against the inmates at Guantanamo. 

Interdependent: 

"All human rights are indivisible and interdependent. This means that one set of rights cannot be enjoyed fully without the other. For example, making progress in civil and political rights makes it easier to exercise economic, social and cultural rights." 

I had a hard time with this, because I feel like what is happening at Guantanamo is directly affecting anyone besides the inmates there. How does someone being tortured there affect people elsewhere? Does it just go to show that the United States government can do whatever they want, and feel they are above the Human Rights Declaration if what they're doing is right for the country? 

https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2279&context=sulr

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