Human rights are traditional American values. Human rights were written into America’s founding ideals and etched into our first documents. We’ve stood by and for human rights through peace and wartime, at home and abroad.
Since it was opened, the prison at Guantanamo Bay has represented all that went wrong with our respect for human rights in a time of crisis. We allowed the imprisonment of people who had seen no judge, who had been heard by no jury, who were assigned no lawyer, against whom we saw no evidence. We set human rights aside in the name of protecting America. But we had forgotten that without human rights, “America” is an incomplete vision.
The prison at Guantanamo Bay has weighed heavy in my heart for years. After watching my colleagues at the ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights fail again and again in their attempts to secure basic legal access for the prisoners, I had become convinced that we would not see the end of this most basic violation of American values.
Next week, President Obama will issue an executive order to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay. We will start our gradual return to the founding ideals that were etched into our first documents:
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.