wfn.org | NCC, LCHR, Others File "Guantanamo" Brief with Supreme Court

["Carol Fouke" <cfouke@ncccusa.org>]

For Immediate Release

Guantanamo Bay Detainees Have a Right to Due Process, National Council of
Churches Asserts in "Friend of the Court" Brief Filed Today (11 a.m.) with
U.S. Supreme Court

January 14, 2003, WASHINGTON, D.C. - Foreign nationals being held at the U.S.
Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge the legality of
their detention, assert the National Council of Churches (NCC) and other
religious, legal and human rights organizations in a "friend of the court"
brief filed this morning with the U.S. Supreme Court.

"What we are saying is that there is no land without law.  The law of the
United States requires due process, and so does international law," said Dr.
Antonios Kireopoulos, the NCC's Associate General Secretary for International
Affairs and Peace, New York.  "The NCC, as a religious organization, is
interested from a moral standpoint in the right to due process, which is
being denied the detainees in Guantanamo."

The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights filed the brief at 11 a.m. today on
behalf of the broad coalition of domestic and international organizations in
Al Odah v. United States and Rasul v. Bush-consolidated cases that will test
the assertion that the approximately 660 foreign nationals held at the U.S.
Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have no means of challenging the legality
of their detention in court.  

"These cases will mark the Supreme Court's most important decision in a
generation regarding the rights of non-citizens before U.S. courts," said
Deborah Pearlstein, Director of the Lawyers Committee's U.S. Law & Security
Program.  "The Court should make clear that the Guantanamo prisoners have
some means for challenging the legality of their detention by the United
States."

Despite widespread international protest, the United States has been holding
foreign nationals from more than 40 different countries at Guantanamo since
early 2002.  The detainees have not been afforded a hearing to determine
their participation in any conflict, or their connection to any crime.

At issue before the Supreme Court is an expansive decision by the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which held that foreign nationals detained
at Guantanamo may not petition U.S. courts for review of their
detention-because Guantanamo is not formally U.S. "sovereign" territory. 
This ruling came despite the fact that U.S. courts are the only courts to
which detainees can assert their innocence. The U.S. government exercises
"complete jurisdiction and control" over Guantanamo under a perpetual lease
signed by Cuba and the United States in 1903.

The brief argues that the Guantanamo detainees are entitled to review of
their detention under the U.S. habeas corpus statute, which applies to anyone
detained in violation of the laws or treaties of the United States.   In
their habeas petitions, the detainees argue that their detention violates the
1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and the
Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution-both eligible grounds for review
under the statute.   

The brief also warns that the D.C. Circuit's decision places the United
States in conflict with other democracies, including Israel and the United
Kingdom, which have long rejected the notion that governments can sidestep
judicial review by holding individuals outside their sovereign territory.  It
also places the United States in violation of international law, including
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the United
States formally adopted in 1992.

"The National Council of Churches has a long tradition of advocating for
civil liberties and human rights," said Dr. Kireopoulos.  "In essence, in
this case, we are urging our country, as a citizen of the world, to uphold
the rights mandated by our international obligations - indeed, by our own
Constitution."

In addition to the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and the National
Council of Churches (full legal name: National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the U.S.A.), signatories to the brief include: the American Civil
Liberties Union; the American Jewish Committee; Amnesty International; the
Anti-Defamation League; the Association of the Bar of the City of New York;
Human Rights Watch; the Islamic Circle of North America; the Law Society of
England and Wales; the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; the
National Association of Social Workers Legal Defense Fund; People for the
American Way Foundation; the Rutherford Institute; Trial Lawyers for Public
Justice, and the Union for Reform Judaism.  The law firm of Wiggin & Dana,
New Haven, Ct., served as counsel on the brief.

-end-

Media Contacts: Carol Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252; news@ncccusa.org
David Danzig, LCHR: 212-845-5200; danzigd@lchr.org

National Council of Churches U.S.A.
475 Riverside Dr, New York, 
New York 10115-0050
www.ncccusa.org

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