Thursday, February 5, 2009
Questions about human rights and President Obama’s decision to shut down the controversial detention center Guantánamo Bay will be addressed at Friday’s Human Rights Symposium in Green Hall.
The conference, sponsored by three School of Law groups, will host six distinguished professionals speaking about issues surrounding Guantánamo Bay, procedures for prosecuting and defending alleged criminal terrorists and the future treatment of prisoners of war.
“This is a very current event, and there are still lingering questions on where these detainees will go, will anyone be prosecuted, and how will they be prosecuted,” Watts said.
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WHAT: Second Annual Human Rights Symposium
“National Security and Individual Liberty: Whose Rights at What Cost?”
WHEN: 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 6
WHERE: 203 Green Hall
SCHEDULE
8-8:30 a.m. - Registration, opening remarks
Panel 1: Guantánamo Bay
8:30-9:10 a.m.
Douglass Cassell, University of Notre Dame
“Adios, Guantánamo?”
9:10-9:50 a.m.
Brent Mickum, Spriggs and Hollingsworth
“Guantanamo: The Myths and the Reality”
Panel 2: Criminal Terrorism Prosecutions
10:20-11 a.m.
Jordan Paust, University of Houston
11-11:40 a.m.
Wadie Said, University of South Carolina
Panel 3: Perspectives on Terrorism
1-1:40 p.m.
Christina Wells, University of Missouri
“National Security and the ‘Information’ Problem”
1:40-2:20 p.m.
Richard Levy, University of Kansas
source: www.law.ku.edu
Though a few court cases involving Guantánamo detainees have already begun, Watts said there was speculation about how these types of international cases would be judged in the future.
“As future lawyers, we are still learning about this,” she said. “These cases are totally new to everybody.”
One of the speakers will be Brent Mickum, lawyer to Guantánamo detainee and suspected terrorist Abu Zubaida. The U.S. government alleged that Zubaida was a top al-Qaida lieutenant and he was the first suspected terrorist to be detained after Sept. 11. Zubaida said he was waterboarded during his detention, a method the United Nations Council on Human Rights considered torture.
Mickum said that people should’ve been more aware of what was going on behind the barbed wire and that they didn’t question the Bush administration’s actions because of an innate desire to trust the government.
Mickum said he would correct the myths about Guantánamo Bay at the symposium, and emphasized that the majority of the people detained weren’t international terrorists.
“These people are not the worst of the worst,” he said. “Some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Prisoner treatment was the main concern for Samantha Snyder, Topeka senior and president of KU Amnesty International. She said she hoped the symposium would make students and teachers think about what really went on.
“Because of the light shed on the nature of the war on terror, questions need to be raised about the situations at Guantánamo Bay,” Snyder said.
On Jan. 23, the United Nations Council on Human Rights issued a press release denouncing the treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay and commending President Obama’s order to close the facility.
In the release, Leandro Despouy, special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, called the Bush administration’s treatment of detainees a “violation of international human rights norms.”
Other speakers at the symposium will address different aspects of how the legal system is shifting in order to accommodate these new types of crimes. Topics will include refugee asylum, international human rights and the laws of war.
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Comments
Symposium to address human rights issues
And, why would people be aware of what went on at Gitmo? Do we know what goes on at Fort Leavenworth? It was a mistake to use the words terror and terrorism from the beginning. The people committing these crimes are civilian religious warriors who are doing what they, in their hearts, believe to be the right thing. Over time we have come to be accepting of collateral damage, which is a euphemism for killing bystanders, and other horrible acts. Just as when hunters kill animals they call it a harvest. The methods used to fight the enemies of America are not working. They are merely cementing the idea of America as evil in their minds. The trick is to save lives while not resorting to being vicious ourselves.
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