wfn.org | Fwd: WCC NEWS: Legal rights for Guantanamo detainees

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 21/02/2005

WCC CENTRAL COMMITTEE REQUESTS LEGAL RIGHTS FOR GUANTANAMO DETAINEES

The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee urged the government
of the United States "to immediately grant the legal rights accorded to
detainees" to "over 600 foreign nationals, mostly Muslims" held at the
Guantanamo Bay naval base "without due process and in total violation of
the norms and standards of international humanitarian and human rights
law".

In a statement approved one day before the end of its 15-22 February
meeting in Geneva, the committee also appealed "to the US Government to
let the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCCC-USA)
fulfil its pastoral and humanitarian responsibilities to the detainees by
giving it permission to visit them at Guantanamo Bay".

The WCC governing body appreciates and encourages "the important work
being done by the NCCC-USA in its endeavours to struggle for the rule of
law and secure due process" for those suffering "unconscionable and
illegal detention". Among those endeavours is mentioned the 'amicus
curiae' brief filed in the US Supreme Court by the NCCC-USA together with
other organizations.

The statement also calls on the Council's churches to "educate and
conscientise their congregations to the situation of those presently under
detention in Guantanamo Bay and to fulfil their responsibility as a
community of faith in Christ by calling for the release of those being
held in detention under inhuman conditions".

The full text of the WCC central committee statement is available at:
www.oikoumene.org > Central Committee

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.