High-security prison ‘driving remand prisoners mad’ [ABC OnLine report] “The unit is dangerous to the mental health of those prisoners sent there on remand” … so dangerous that “remand conditions probably breach international human rights obligations.” “Dehumanising,” “harsh,” “structurally damaging,” “destroys the person,” “caused severe suffering” … causing “moderate to severe mental illness” – conditions at Victoria’s Acacia Unit.
Yet they aren’t as severe as conditions at Guantanamo Bay.
Hundreds of prisoners remain in custody at Guantanamo Bay, some for more than seven years, awaiting preliminary hearings to levy charges or trials for the very few with charges laid. Breaching international human rights obligations. Two Australians suffered among them for years.
Yet Australia remained – and remains still – silent about Guantanamo Bay’s conditions, and refuses to-date to accept detainees cleared of all suspicion.
Perhaps Australia understands first-hand how such severe treatment warps a person, damages them psychologically and permanently; perhaps Australia chooses not to accept damaged people. Even though Australia’s passionate, unquestioning support of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the presence of Australian soldiers and weapons in both countries provide prisoners who are remanded in Guantanamo Bay. In conditions that breach international human rights obligations.
Let’s not forget our human rights obligations to those remaining in Guantanamo Bay – morally as part of the community-of-nations, and specifically because of our intense involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. It’s time we act upon our obligations and accept the innocents from Guantanamo Bay.
Judy Bamberger, CLA member,
O’Connor ACT