The US government's ability to act as a global leader in protecting human rights is compromised by the continued existence of the detention complex at Guantanamo Bay, where 40 men are still being held, Michel Paradis, a senior attorney at the US Department of Defense who has represented several detainees at the facility, told Sputnik in an interview
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2021) The US government's ability to act as a global leader in protecting human rights is compromised by the continued existence of the detention complex at Guantanamo Bay, where 40 men are still being held, Michel Paradis, a senior attorney at the US Department of Defense who has represented several detainees at the facility, told Sputnik in an interview.
Human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have long criticized the United States government for the extrajudicial detentions of hundreds of men, many of whom were released without charge, at Guantanamo Bay since the facility opened in 2002.
According to Paradis, other countries can use Guantanamo Bay to undermine the United States' ability to speak on human rights issues.
"It certainly compromises our ability to speak clearly on human rights issues, absolutely, because it goes to credibility. If you're criticizing a country that is interning people without trial, as happens around the world, even if the scale is dramatically different, foreign countries can point to Guantanamo as a way of poking the United States in the eye," the prominent lawyer said.
In light of recent US criticism of China's human rights record, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said on March 31 that the United States has "no right whatsoever" to comment on rights issues in China, as a result of the "abusive treatment of prisoners" at Guantanamo Bay.
