Sign Up for Our Mailing List

Donate to CCREvent Calendar
 

Newsroom

 

Take Action

Take Action to End U.S. Funding to Honduran Police and Military

We urgently need you to contact your representative and ask that they sign on to…

What's New

CCR Calls on U.S. DOJ to Investigate Former Yemeni President for Torture

February 21, 2012, New York – Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) requested that…

Daughters of Holy Land Five Respond to Court Decision

February 18, 2012, New York –Yesterday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request…

Related Resources

CCR Attorney Pardiss Kabriaei on Targeted Assassinations with Glenn Greenwald Radio

From  Glenn Greenwald (at Salon.com): As I wrote about on Saturday, the Obama administration on Friday…

CCR Attorney Sunita Patel on The Takeaway Radio Show (Aug 12, 2010)

This episode originally aired on The Takeaway, August 12, 2010. From The Takeaway:

CCR Attorney Sunita Patel on Law and Disorder Radio Show (May 10, 2010)

Originally aired May 10, 2010. From the Law and Disorder Radio Show website: CCR Attorney Legal Observer…

Australia possible home for Uighurs now in Palau (from abc.net.au)

Australia has been put forward as an eventual permanent home for the six Chinese Muslim…

CCR Condemns President Obama’s Lifting of Stay in Military Tribunals

Legal Experts, Guantánamo Attorneys Available for Comment on Executive Order on Periodic Review, Reopening Commissions

 

 

CONTACT: press@ccrjustice.org

March 7, 2011, New York – In response to the Obama administration’s announcement today that it has ordered the Department of Defense to lift a stay on new charges in military commissions, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) issued the following statement:
"Today’s executive order creating a periodic review board for certain Guantánamo detainees and the reopening of flawed military commissions for business does nothing other than codify the status quo. The creation of a review process that will take up to a year – designed to be repeated every four years – is a tacit acknowledgment that the Obama administration intends to leave Guantánamo as a scheme for unlawful detention without charge and trial for future presidents to clean up, despite the fact that senior officials acknowledged today that keeping the prison open continues to hinder our national security in the long run.

"Barack Obama campaigned and began his presidency with a pledge to shut down Guantánamo, support federal trials for terrorism suspects, respect human rights and restore the rule of law. Guantánamo and the military tribunal system are no longer an inheritance from the Bush administration – they will be President Obama’s legacy."
Legal experts and Guantánamo attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights are available for comment on the reopening of the military commissions to new charges and President Obama's executive order establishing a periodic review process.
 
CCR has led the legal battle over Guantanamo for the last nine years – sending the first ever habeas attorney to the base and sending the first attorney to meet with an individual transferred from CIA “ghost detention” to Guantanamo.  CCR has been responsible for organizing and coordinating more than 500 pro bono lawyers across the country to represent the men at Guantanamo, ensuring that nearly all have the option of legal representation. In addition, CCR has been working to resettle the approximately 30 men who remain at Guantánamo because they cannot return to their country of origin for fear of persecution and torture.
 

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.