OMAR: QUESTIONS & ANSWERS |
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An extensive compilation of documents on Omar Khadr is available at www.omarkhadr.ca. That site is maintained by Prof. Audrey Macklin and the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Some important questions and answers about Omar's sitution: 1. Won't Omar Khadr get justice in the US? 2. Did Omar Khadr kill a US soldier? 3. Doesn't Omar Khadr come from a family of terrorists? 4. How bad has Omar’s treatment really been? 5. Does Canada share responsibility for Omar's mistreatment? 6. What would repatriation mean for Omar Khadr? 7. Why is Omar's age relevant? 8. Is there anything Canada can do now?
DEDICATED OVERVIEW REPORTS ON OMAR KHADR BY MAJOR ORGANIZATIONS: Parliament of Canada, House of Commons Standing Committee Report: Omar Khadr (June 2008) "1. Recommends that the Government of Canada demand the immediate termination of Military Commission proceedings against Omar Khadr. …3. Recommends that the Government of Canada demand Omar Khadr’s release from US custody at Guantanamo Bay to the custody of Canadian law enforcement officials as soon as practical. … 7. In particular, the Subcommittee calls on the relevant Canadian authorities to ensure that an appropriate rehabilitation and reintegration program is developed for Omar Khadr, which takes into account legitimate security concerns. ..." "[C]ontrary to the view that Canada should defer to the current US proceedings against Omar, Omar can and should be tried in Canada under Canadian law. Contrary to recent statements recounted in the media, and provided the US allegations against Omar are true, this report concludes that viable criminal charges against Omar can be brought using a number of legal avenues..." Human Rights Watch, The Omar Khadr Case: A Teenager Imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay (June 2007) HOW TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO BAY: "The United States continues to hold some 250 people in military detention at Guantanamo Bay, most of whom have now been in US custody for nearly seven years without charge. There is a growing bipartisan consensus that the continued operation of the detention facility at Guantanamo has not only caused significant damage to America’s standing around the world, but has been counterproductive in fighting terrorism. Five former secretaries of state have urged the next president to move quickly to close Guantanamo, and President-elect Obama has committed to doing so." Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Closing Guantanamo (Sept. 2008)
"During the first week in office, the next President of the
LEGAL INADEQUACY OF THE US MILITARY COMMISSION THAT WILL TRY OMAR: Overview Summary: The Legal Inadequacy of U.S. Military Commissions for Trying Omar Khadr Centre for Constitutional Rights, Military Commissions Act of 2006, (2006) "The Military Commissions Act: Creates a broad definition of “unlawful enemy combatant”… Severely limits the avenues of judicial review for non-citizens held in U.S. custody, aiming to eliminate both habeas and post-release civil challenges, thus effectively sanctioning indefinite detention and abusive interrogations of non-citizens and limiting accountability…Permits coercive interrogations and torture by creating narrow re-definitions, limiting judicial review, and allowing for statements obtained under torture or coercion to be used in prosecutions in some instances…Authorizes military commissions which do not satisfy fundamental due process requirements and with procedures which deviate markedly from criminal trials in civilian courts, courts-martial under military law, and international criminal trials…" " In March 2007, Omar Khadr was facing charges under the MCA. This Canadian national is accused of offences committed in 2002 during the armed conflict in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old. The USA has ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. Under its provisions, in the case of children held because they participated in the international or non-international armed conflict in Afghanistan, the USA has an obligation to provide them with “all appropriate assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and their social reintegration”. Detaining children in indefinite military custody in Guantánamo Bay cannot meet this obligation. Neither can trying such individuals in front of a military commission." As the culture of impunity and military leniency grows, including in cases in which Afghan and Iraqi detainees have died as a result of abuses by US agents, the administration continues to seek to try members of the “enemy” for war crimes in front of military commissions – executive bodies, not independent or impartial courts. It has appealed a federal court ruling that the military commission procedures are unlawful because the defendant can be excluded from proceedings. Amnesty International reiterates its total opposition to the military commissions, which violate international fair trial standards in numerous ways. REPORTS ON THE USE OF TORTURE AND OF CRUEL AND DEGRADING TREATMENT AT GUANTANAMO BAY "Our research reveals serious flaws in the system created by the Bush Administration for the apprehension, detention, interrogation, and release of suspected members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda taken into U.S. custody since the attacks of September 11, 2001... Many of these interrogation methods— whether used individually or simultaneously over prolonged periods of time—appear to have violated international and domestic prohibitions on torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment." Human Rights Watch, Locked Up Alone: Detention Conditions and Mental Health at Guantanamo, 2008 "[D]etainees at Guantanamo spend 22 hours a day alone in small cells with little or no natural light or fresh air. They are allowed out only two hours a day (often at night) to exercise in small outdoor pens. Except for the occasional visit by an attorney or a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), they have little human interaction with anyone other than interrogators and prison staff. For many detainees, isolated confinement is not a time-limited punishment for a disciplinary infraction, but something they have faced day in, day out, for months and years.""These aggressive interrogation techniques, when coupled with the stress of indefinite, arbitrary detention, have caused the prisoners tremendous psychological and physical injury. At least one prisoner nearly died during an interrogation. Most prisoners live in conditions that are debilitating. Many have serious, untreated medical problems, often caused by living conditions or physical punishment. Some have lost their sanity." "The State party should cease to detain any person at Guantánamo Bay and close this detention facility, permit access by the detainees to judicial process or release them as soon as possible, ensuring that they are not returned to any State where they could face a real risk of being tortured, in order to comply with its obligations under the Convention.""[T]he Special Rapporteur concludes that some of the techniques, in particular the use of dogs, exposure to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation for several consecutive days and prolonged isolation were perceived as causing severe suffering. He also stresses that the simultaneous use of these techniques is even more likely to amount to torture." " [M]any if not all detainees have been subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment occurring as a direct result of official policy, authorised at the very highest levels of government; ii. many detainees have been subjected to ill-treatment amounting to torture which has occurred systematically and with the knowledge and complicity of the United States Government." CANADIAN COURT DECISIONS ON OMAR KHADR: Decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Canada (Minister of Justice) v. Khadr, May 2008 “[T]he regime providing for the detention and trial of Mr. Khadr at the time of the CSIS interviews constituted a clear violation of fundamental human rights protected by international law… [T]he conditions under which Mr. Khadr was held and was liable for prosecution were illegal under both U.S. and international law at the time Canadian officials interviewed Mr. Khadr and gave the information to U.S. authorities.” Decision of the Federal Court of Canada in Khadr v. Canada (Attorney-General), June 2008 "The report of the March, 2004 visit to Guantánamo prepared by the DFAIT official who went on that occasion is included in the collection… The practice described to the Canadian official in March 2004 was, in my view, a breach of international human rights law respecting the treatment of detainees under UNCAT [United Nations Convention Against Torture] and the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Canada became implicated in the violation when the DFAIT official was provided with the redacted information and chose to proceed with the interview." RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AND LAW: Third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949 (signed and ratified by Canada and the US) United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (signed and ratified by Canada; signed by the United States) United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (signed and ratified by Canada and United States)
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