Our Mission
No More Guantánamos is a coalition of concerned U.S. residents, communities, organizations, and attorneys who are working together to ensure justice for the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Bagram air base in Afghanistan, and other offshore prison sites maintained by the CIA and the Pentagon around the world. Our grassroots public education uses the men's stories to encourage a fact-based debate and to build public support for basic human rights for all prisoners, including the legal right to be either charged for crimes and tried or released, in accordance with international law, and not held indefinitely, and to find homes for prisoners who cannot return home.
Our Vision
All prisoners of the U.S. government are human beings and must be treated humanely, with respect and dignity. In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court observed that the prison at Guantánamo Bay Naval Center is entirely under U.S. control. On that basis it concluded that the prison cannot be considered a “law-free zone” where people can be held beyond the reach of laws and standards created to assure justice and basic human rights for all people. Most recently, in June 2008, the high court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that the prisoners held at Guantánamo are entitled to the writ of habeas corpus.
We believe that our country and the world are safest when governments comply with the highest standards of law regarding prisoners. People have created laws and conventions for hundreds of years, improving upon them as needed, to avoid mistakes and abuses when capturing, holding and treating prisoners suspected of crimes. Each time our government ignores its laws and internationally established legal standards, it makes the world more dangerous by inviting other governments and other people to follow suit. Therefore, we support strict adherence by the U.S. government to the following:
- The writ of habeas corpus to give prisoners not captured in combat an opportunity to challenge their detentions
- Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions stipulating humane treatment of prisoners of war
- The Convention Against Torture
- The Detainee Treatment Act
- The U.S. Army Field Manual
- The Uniform Code of Military Justice
A government of, by and for the people must be ruled by its people. Therefore, we as U.S. residents must hold the U.S. government accountable for upholding the rule of law and must take corrective action for any breaches.
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