Quaker Lobby Welcomes White House Decision to Abide by Geneva Conventions
For immediate release -- July 11, 2006
The White House announcement today that all detainees held at Guantánamo Bay and other military detention facilities around the world are entitled to the guarantees of humane treatment specified in Common Article 3 the Geneva Conventions is a welcome sign that the administration supports the rule of international law in these matters, said the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). The 63 year old Quaker lobby, which fields the largest team of peace lobbyists active on Capitol Hill, today called on the administration to extend these protections to all detainees in U.S. custody anywhere in the world.
The administration has argued for several years that detainees captured during the pursuit of Al Qaeda are not prisoners of war and thus not subject to the Geneva Conventions. But in a memo sent to military commanders July 7, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England states bluntly “The Supreme court has determined that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 applies as a matter of law to the conflict with Al Qaeda" (PDF). The Supreme Court, England notes in the memo which was made public today, found that the military commissions established at Guantanamo Bay violate the Geneva Conventions.
“The U.S. helped to draft the Geneva Conventions, and the Pentagon has repeatedly stressed the importance of these protections,” said FCNL Executive Secretary Joe Volk today. He noted that the Army Field Manual for Intelligence Interrogations issued in 1992 makes explicit reference to the protections afforded by the Geneva Conventions.
“The administration’s defiance of the requirements of the Geneva Conventions had created what were in effect ‘law-free zones’ at Guantanamo Bay and other locations. We welcome this announcement and expect that these new requirements will be implemented in good faith,” Volk said. He added that FCNL remains concerned that the new Pentagon directive applies only to prisoners held by the Department of Defense, and not to detainees held by the CIA or other U.S. government agencies. “The entire U.S. government should abide by the Geneva Conventions, without exception,” said Volk.
****
The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is a non-partisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people from every state in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government. For more information: http://www.fcnl.org
More Press Releases
|
