In the fifth amendment to the US Constitution there appears the following, ” No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”, and in the sixth amendment this is qualified further, ” In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial…”.
Of course there is nothing stopping people from being imprisoned falsely which is why there arose the writ of Habeas Corpus – literally, bring forth the body. This forced a person to be presented to a court to establish the legality of their detention. This goes back to the 12th century in England and is enshrined in the US Constitution and in US law.
Of course there are instances where this is suspended – rightly or wrongly – but the principal is there to prevent abuses of power and to provide a balance against a state falsely imprisoning people.
One of the fiercest defenders of human rights is the US. They take great pains in highlighting the human rights abuses in other countries. It seems that their objective is to be the guardian of the world’s morals. Now this is a fine ambition and certainly, there are many human rights abuses around the world which need to be highlighted and redressed, and indeed they have been foremost in championing the rights of people who have been repressed and abused. This is a good thing.
Given all of this then why is it that the US are illegally holding and torturing an Australian citizen, and have been doing so for years, without trial, without any recourse to the justice system?
David Hicks has been held now for 5 years at Guantanamo Bay. The facts of the case are fairly straight forward. He has not yet been before a legally constituted court. In his own country there is no law under which he can be charged. The system which the US wished to use to try him has been deemed illegal by the US courts. The process that he is subject to violates the US constitution. He has been subject to treatment which by most definitions is considered torture, or in the words of the US Constitution is “Cruel and unusual punishment”.
If the shoe was on the other foot the US would move heaven and earth to get its citizen out of detention. Speeches to the UN, representations to the government concerned, even military action in some circumstances. It seems to me that not only is the US guilty of gross human rights violations but it is guilty of hypocrisy. If David is guilty then let him come before a legally constituted court and be tried, or release him.
Where is Australia in all of this? All of the UK citizens have long ago been released. The Australian government seems content to allow its citizen be illegally retained and tortured indefinitely. Quite frankly I am puzzled by this. What does the Australian government hope to gain?
The measure of a civilised society is not how it treats its citizens but how it treats its enemies.