By Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Researcher, ACLU Human Rights Program at 7:58pm
An AP article today announced the Pentagon has admitted that 12 children under the age of 18 have been held at Guantánamo since it opened in 2002. The news report comes on the heels of a study released last week by the U.C. Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, showing that the U.S. has held at least 12 juveniles at Guantánamo.
Friday morning, a determined and defiant Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul (PDF) appeared before the military commission. Escorted by military police holding each of his wrists, al-Bahlul wore a tan prison uniform and flip-flops. He wasn’t carrying his "boycott" sign, which he created back in January 2006 and has held during subsequent hearings. We soon realized that this was the reason for a half-hour delay in the hearing’s start time.
Thursday’s hearing in Afghan national Mohammed Jawad’s case brought stunning testimony on serious abuse he suffered at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan as a teenager, as well as military psychologists’ role in crafting abusive interrogation methods for use on Jawad and other prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.
By Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Researcher, ACLU Human Rights Program at 9:11pm
Today here at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child reviewed the United States for its compliance with the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Ratified by the U.S. in 2002, the Optional Protocol lays out guidelines for the treatment of former child soldiers in U.S. custody and establishes the U.S.'s minimum obligations to protect children under 18 from military recruitment. Twenty-two U.S. officials, including Department of Defense officials overseeing Detainee Affairs, reported to the U.N. Committee during a public review session today.
