Guantánamo, torture and the mechanisms for change
In March 2022, the University of Bristol’s Human Rights Implementation Centre (HRIC) hosted an important guest. Mohamedou Ould Slahi was detained at the notorious Guantánamo Bay detention camp, without charge, for over a decade. His visit to Bristol marked 20 shameful years of the facility’s existence - and also put the spotlight on the significant role that Bristol researchers have played in reducing incidence of torture around the world.
Mohamedou’s story and the research of the HRIC bring into sharp focus the need for mechanisms that hold States accountable for their crimes – and for Guantánamo to not become a shield behind which others committing such acts can hide.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi was detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp for 14 years without charge.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi was detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp for 14 years without charge.
A shameful anniversary
Raising awareness
2022 marks the 20th anniversary of Guantánamo Bay’s notorious detention site, set up in the name of America’s ‘War on Terror’.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi was incarcerated at the naval base after being accused of involvement in planning the September 11 atrocities. He was one of the facility's first inmates. Here, Mohamedou endured years of torture, including assault, being blasted with heavy metal music and strobe lighting, and deprived of sleep for 70 days. Two decades later, after a long and gruelling campaign to secure his release, Mohamedou and his defence lawyer, Nancy Hollander, joined Professors Sir Malcolm Evans and Rachel Murray at the University of Bristol's Human Rights Implementation Centre event to lead a call to close Guantánamo.
In March 2022, Mohamedou's lawyer, Nancy Hollander, joined Mohamedou and Professor Sir Malcolm Evans at a University of Bristol event to mark the shameful 20th anniversary of Guantánamo Bay detention camp.
In March 2022, Mohamedou's lawyer, Nancy Hollander, joined Mohamedou and Professor Sir Malcolm Evans at a University of Bristol event to mark the shameful 20th anniversary of Guantánamo Bay detention camp.
"It is shameful that Guantánamo still exists. What Guantánamo represents is indefinite detention without trial, which itself is in the highest degree odious. But if detention without trial is in the highest degree odious, torture and ill treatment of persons is universally prohibited and condemned. It is, in fact, the most outlawed of all human rights commitments - and yet it persists."
Professor Sir Malcolm Evans, Chair of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture (2011-2020)
As co-Directors of the University of Bristol’s Human Rights Implementation Centre (HRIC), Professors Sir Malcolm Evans and Rachel Murray head up one of the world’s most prominent organisations working in the prevention of torture and other forms of ill-treatment.
For over ten years, and building on more than 25 years of research concerning torture prevention at the University of Bristol, the HRIC has made a major contribution to the establishment and strengthening of an international system for the regular monitoring of places where individuals are deprived of their liberty.
A crucial component in this process is the role played by the United Nations Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT), chaired by Sir Malcom from 2011-2020 - work that contributed to his knighthood in 2016.
The UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture has the authority to turn up anywhere in the world, without warning, and demand unfettered access to scrutinise conditions in facilities such as prisons, police stations, psychiatric hospitals, social care institutions, and immigration centres.
The SPT sees what’s really happening in places of detention and it works closely, and sensitively, with governments, national human rights institutions and civil society organisations to ensure that the circumstances that lead to the torture and inhumane treatment in a State are resolved. Critically, it puts in place the appropriate monitoring mechanisms to avoid future occurrences of human rights abuses in those countries.
The SPT is a crucial element of Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), an international human rights treaty designed to strengthen the protection of individuals deprived of their liberty and a mechanism for change that the HRIC has helped shape and deliver.
Does torture work?
Setting the scene
Guantánamo Diary was the first and only memoir written by a still-imprisoned Guantánamo detainee.
Guantánamo Diary was the first and only memoir written by a still-imprisoned Guantánamo detainee.
Mohamedou has the unenviable title of being ‘one of the most tortured men in the history of Guantánamo Bay’. His harrowing account of the torture he received at the facility, smuggled out in letters to his defence lawyer, Nancy Hollander, became an international best seller in 2015 - and in 2021 a major Hollywood film. Mohamedou endured physical and mental torture. But to what end? Did the US government get the answers they were looking for?
"When I was under pain, I did not care about the punishment that would befall me. I only wanted them to stop the pain. The lie meant freedom of thought because the torture stopped. And then when they said, ‘we want to put you on a polygraph’, I was so scared because the polygraph would reveal the truth and the truth meant more pain. Every single time I was 100% acquitted. This is torture."
Mohamedou Ould Slahi
The use of a polygraph machine proved Mohamedou's innocence - and confirmed that his 'confessions' under torture were false.
The use of a polygraph machine proved Mohamedou's innocence - and confirmed that his 'confessions' under torture were false.
The Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 3 of the Geneva Convention all demand that no-one shall be subject to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment without exception. It is also illegal under the United States criminal system to torture someone and any evidence suspected to have been gained as a result of torture cannot be used in prosecutions.
According to Amnesty International, 779 of the inmates that spent time at Guantánamo only seven have ever been convicted - including five as a result of pre-trial agreements under which they pleaded guilty in return for the possibility of release from the base. These men faced trial by 'military commission'. The proceedings did not meet fair trial standards. As of 2nd April, 2022, 37 detainees remain at Guantánamo Bay Detention Centre.
The rule of law has been largely absent from Guantánamo Bay for the entirety of its 20 years existence.
Mechanisms for change
The research
Establishing and strengthening the mechanisms needed to prevent incidences of torture and ill-treatment around the world is the bedrock of the torture prevention work of the Human Rights Implementation Centre (HRIC).
Throughout its existence, and building on over 25 years of research, Professors Malcolm Evans, Rachel Murray and colleagues, the Centre has made important contributions to the prevention of torture, helping reduce the likelihood of torture or other ill-treatment around the world through significant advancements in the monitoring of places of detention.
In particular, the HRIC is internationally recognised for its research aimed at strengthening the implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) – the mechanism for establishing a system of regular visits to places where people are deprived of their liberty.
In addition to the visits carried out by the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT), OPCAT also requires States establish independent ‘National Preventive Mechanisms’ (NPMs) to monitor places of detention at country-level.
The UK set up its National Preventive Mechanism in 2009. The US has never ratified OPCAT and does not have such a system.
The University of Bristol Law School is home to the Human Rights Implementation Centre, one of the world's most prominent organisations working for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment around the world.
The University of Bristol Law School is home to the Human Rights Implementation Centre, one of the world's most prominent organisations working for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment around the world.
"Guantánamo could be closed. It could be closed fast. But there has to be a mechanism. You have to put a mechanism in the government that works with these people. And that requires political will. It requires using your political position and being willing to use it to close Guantánamo. And that has not been there because there's resistance to closing it,"
Nancy Hollander, Guantánamo Lawyer
So what role has the Human Rights Implementation Centre (HRIC) played in ensuring the establishment and effectiveness of the NPMs elsewhere in the world?
In 2011 Professors Murray and Evans were responsible for the first independent analysis of the operational efficiency of OPCAT – five years after it came into force. This included investigating the effectiveness of the establishment of NPMs by States that had ratified OPCAT and agreed to monitor places of detention in their own countries.
Funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council, The European Union and UK government, the related research enabled the HRIC to contribute to the reduction of the incidence of torture in a number of countries around the world. The HRIC:
- Improved standards, policies and practices of supranational bodies including the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and the African Commission’s Committee on Prevention of Torture in Africa.
- Facilitated the adoption of legislation and modification of government policies in a number of countries.
- Influenced the establishment and enhanced the work of those independent national bodies that have a remit to prevent torture.
This ranged from supporting the establishment of the Rwandan Commission as the NPM for the country - to supporting the Irish Human Rights and Equalities Commission to identify options for Irelands NPM.
Over the years the HRIC has advised numerous countries on draft and existing legislation relating to NPMs including in Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa among others. Find out more about the impact of HRIC's research. There are now 92 States party to OPCAT and over 65 States have designated NPMs.
In terms of Guantánamo, what damage could its existence and legacy do to the attempts to reduce the incidence of torture around the world?
“The fact that this is being done by the United States could be seen as legitimising, which of course it never can, what takes place in other parts of the world. This gives rise to the danger of it becoming something of a shield behind which other states have been able to hide in order to justify their own ill treatment of detainees.”
Sir Malcolm Evans, co-Director Human Rights Implementation Centre
Closing Guantanamo
The Debate
In this series of podcasts, Mohamedou, Nancy and Sir Malcolm look back at Mohamedou’s experience at Guantánamo Bay. They discuss how, by writing what was happening to him, Mohamedou made public what was going on at the facility. For many he introduced the previously unimaginable concept that torture could indeed be carried out by the USA. But what does that mean for the closure of the facility? And for torture prevention efforts around the world?
Find out more by signing up to our Legal Frontiers Podcast.
Human Rights Law Clinic
Student involvement in torture prevention
The Human Rights Law Clinic integrates students into the work of the Human Rights Implementation Centre (HRIC), where they will work with national and international partners and acquire knowledge and experience in international human rights law and practice.
Each year the HRIC appoints around seventy members to the clinic, with each allocated to a team overseen by a student team leader. Students gain experience providing pro-bono legal research assistance to organisations working on human rights legal issues.
By the end of their time in the clinic students produce a series of high-quality reports, each of which will provide partners with crucial, up-to-date research that will feed directly into ongoing litigation and policy drafting, as well as informing future projects.
"As part of the Human Rights Implementation Centre (HRIC), students are able to support NGOs with the work that they need to then inform their litigation strategies and form their reports to official human rights bodies like the UN. I was involved as a researcher in the HRIC in my second year with research for the Committee on the Prevention Against Torture in Africa. I got to do work that was very meaningful in helping organisations that do incredible work that impacts people that need help."
Find out how volunteering for the Human Rights Law Clinic helped Siphesihle Tsabedze, LLB 2021, pursue her goal of becoming a human rights barrister.
Publications: Reducing incidence of torture
Murray R, Steinerte E, Evans M, Hallo de Wolf A (2011), The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture, Oxford University Press
Murray R (2008). National Preventive Mechanisms Under the Optional Protocol to the Torture Convention: One Size Does Not Fit All
Evans M, Dr C Bicknell and Professor R Morgan (2018), Preventing Torture in Europe, Strasbourg: Council of Europe Press
Laing J and Murray R (2017). Measuring the incidence of Article 3 ECHR violations in Places of Detention in the UK: Implications for the National Preventive Mechanism — University of Bristol
Further information:
"Reducing incidence of Torture" (case study 2021).
"An international role in torture prevention efforts" (case study 2015).
"University of Bristol ranked third in UK for excellence in legal research (THE 2022)
Visit www.bristol.ac.uk/law/hric for more information about the Human Rights Implementation Centre and the opportunities for students.
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