A Report by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has said that the U.S. should close its anti- terrorism prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, immediately, and try all of the detainees or release them.

It is arbitrary detention with many of the detainees having been tortured and held for more than three years without charge. It said the US should refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Mike Thompson

The people in the US naval base prison at Guantanamo should get a fair trial. No doubt the UN demand to shut down Guantanamo will fall on deaf ears in the Bush administration. Thankfully, due to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling some detainees have the right to challenge their imprisonment in federal courts.

The Howard Government should now state that there is a need to close the Guantanamo camp and say that it is opposed to holding people "in perpetuity". Like the British government, the Howard Government has been complicit in the seizure and mistreatment of many of the victims of Guantánamo, and the still more secret prisons beyond.

Guantánamo Guantanamo should be shut down.