PETITION

Guantanamo Bay military detention facility MUST be closed

To the Honourable the President and Members of the Senate in Parliament assembled.

The Petition of the undersigned draws to the attention of the Senate the continuing operation of the United States military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. This facility exists in contravention of international law and has been widely condemned by the leaders of other Western nations, the United Nations, respected jurists and religious leaders. The recent decision to release 134 detainees following a review by the US Department of Defense, 119 to their countries of citizenship, further highlights the illegitimacy of the facility’s operation.

Your petitioners believe:

a) the United States’ military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay exists in a jurisdictional void, denying detainees’ fundamental human rights;

b) those suspected of any crime, including terrorist-related offences, have a right to a fair trial, to allow them an opportunity to defend all charges against them;

c) South Australian David Hicks has been detained at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years, and it is unlikely he will be repatriated by the Australian Government in the forseeable future, despite the repatriation of the citizens of nearly every other Western nation;

d) in the absence of any effort to ensure the human rights of detainees, and following allegations of outright violations of these rights, the facility must be closed.

Your petitioners therefore request the Senate urge the Government to support calls for the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to be closed.

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Please return this petition to:

Senator Natasha Stott Despoja,

Democrats’ Foreign Affairs Spokesperson

PO Box 3419, Rundle Mall South Australia 5000