The Guardian 9 March, 2005
World Council of Churches
fights for Guantanamo detainees
GENEVA: The World Council of Churches (WCC) has called on the US government to "immediately acknowledge the legal rights of the detainees" at the US's Guantánamo naval base on the island of Cuba.
"Over 600 foreigners, most of them Muslims, do not have access to due process", the organisation points out, recalling that this constitutes "a violation of international humanitarian law and regulations regarding human rights".
The WCC also demands that the authorities in Washington "allows them to carry out their pastoral and humanitarian mission", by granting their representatives authorisation to visit the US-controlled detention centre.
The religious organisation is also encouraging its churches to "educate and create awareness among their congregations with respect to the situation of people detained in Guantánamo" and on the need to demand the release of "those individuals who are being subjected to inhuman conditions".
The WCC central committee passed this motion at its annual meeting, and also requested the Bush administration to unreservedly ratify the Statute of Rome, which created the International Criminal Court.
The WCC believes that Washington's efforts to reach bilateral agreements excluding US citizens from the jurisdiction of that court are "an inexcusable attempt to obtain impunity for the crimes defined in the Statute".
Created in 1984, the WCC has its headquarters in Geneva, and it brings together 342 churches from over 120 countries representing almost all the Christian denominations, except for the Roman Catholic Church, which maintains a cooperative relationship with the organisation.