In a communiqué issued in Geneva and distributed at the UN’s headquarters
in New York, Pillay criticized the U.S. government for the recent approval
of a bill entrenching indefinite military detention without charges or
trial, Prensa Latina reported.

President Barack Obama signed on December 31 of 2011, in Hawaii the
National Defense Authorization Act which violates fundamental principles
of justice and human rights, in particular those related with the right to
have a fair trial and opposing arbitrary detention, the High Commissioner
stated.

Pillay said she was disturbed at the U.S.’ failure to close Guantanamo
Bay, three years after incoming President Barack Obama pledged to shut the
camp.

She warned that the high-security prison camp to exist and individuals
remain arbitrarily detained - indefinitely - in clear breach of
international law.

The UN official urged the U.S. Congress to take steps to enable the U.S
administration to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, and that all
human rights violations committed at the Delta Camp must be investigated.

“Every effort must be made to hold to account those responsible for the
development, approval or implementation of coercive interrogation methods
analogous to torture under international law,” she said. “Individuals
found to have perpetrated, ordered, tolerated or condoned torture and
ill-treatment should be brought to justice.”

At Delta Camp, opened following the 9/11 terrorist attempts in New York
and Washington, are kept 171 people of a total of 779 who were locked away
in that facility for ten years without right to trial or appeal.

Out of almost 800 detained people, 600 were liberated, eight died there
and six were condemned by military commissions.