Chairwoman Hautala noted in a meeting of European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights on 14 March that the news from the USA on Guantanamo Bay issue have left the Committee disappointed. [:]President Obama had announced on 7 March that he will lift the two-year freeze on new military trials for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison, while also announcing a new procedure for continuing to hold those detainees not charged or convicted but deemed too dangerous to free.
The new Periodic Review Boards (PRBs) have been received with disappointment by the international human rights community and rejected as a viable alternative to effective judicial mechanism, ensuring the right to legal defence.
It does appear that the President will not be able to fulfil his election promised to close Guantanamo, Chairwoman added.
She was nevertheless pleased to inform the members that after Subcommittee hearing on secret detentions in January, the Civil Liberties and Home Affairs coordinator-members had decided that a follow-up will be done on the 2007 report by the European Parliament on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners.