"…we call on the US Government: to promptly close down the Guantánamo Bay detention facility; to end the prolonged arbitrary detention of all persons held at Guantánamo Bay by promptly releasing them to their home country or to a third country should they be at risk of persecution, or by transferring them to regular detention centers on the United States mainland…" the letter reads.
The international human rights experts stressed in the letter that the United States must end the impunity that extends to violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed as part of the so-called "war on terror."
It was noted in the joint letter that some 100 detainees remained in the detention facility despite an executive order issued by US President Barack Obama in January 2009 to release or transfer detainees and shut down the prison, following increasing human rights groups’ criticism over grave human rights violations in the jail.
The US government set up the Guantanamo prison in 2002 to detain extremely dangerous offenders.
