Global Lawyers and Physicians Working Together for Human Rights
President George W. Bush 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500 president@whitehouse.gov Dear President George W. Bush, I am writing to urge you to fulfill your promises and obligations especially towards children who you vowed to protect through policy and action. While the three youngest children were finally released, seven juveniles under the age of 18 remain at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo, confined together with adult prisoners. They continue to be imprisoned without charge, hearing or trial, without access to lawyers, relatives or the courts. The Geneva Conventions state clearly, specifically Art. 77 of API that children are to be afforded special protection ''whether or not they are prisoners of war.'' Children are vulnerable; these children are particularly vulnerable. The vast majority of these children are kidnapped into terrorism, a detriment to their development and a gross violation of their rights. Further detaining and isolating them indefinitely will only serve to make successful rehabilitation and social reintegration more difficult. It is imperative these children's cases be resolved expeditiously and they be brought before a competent and fair tribunal or released and repatriated- preferably through UNICEF's child soldier repatriation program, as soon as possible. The below-mentioned policy, the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the UN resolution were ratified and signed onto during your administration: 1.) No Child left behind 2.) ''States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons within their jurisdiction recruited or used in hostilities contrary to the present Protocol are demobilized or otherwise released from service. States Parties shall, when necessary, accord to such persons all appropriate assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and their social reintegration.'' Article 6, paragraph 3 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts- children defined as persons under the age of eighteen. 3.) All States affirm, ''any measure taken to combat terrorism complies with obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law'' UN resolution pertaining to the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, adopted Dec. 2002 I urge you to confirm those stated principles and acknowledge that the United States is committed to complying with the intricate net of humanitarian and human rights laws, which leave no child behind- most definitely not in Guantanamo's prisons! I look forward to your response. Respectfully, First Name | Last Name E-mail address
First Name | Last Name
