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Call for Papers Theme: Guantanamo Subtitle: 20 Years After Type: International Conference Institution: Law Society & Justice (LawSoJust) Research and Enterprise Group, University of Brighton Location: Online Date: 12.–13.11.2021 Deadline: 28.5.2021 __________________________________________________ 11th January 2022 will mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. President Obama pledged to close Guantanamo when he took office in 2009 but the detention centre remained open during his and Trump’s subsequent administration. With Joe Biden taking office on 20th January 2021 forty men remain in detention today. In their report published on 11th January 2021 entitled USA: Right the wrong – decision time on Guantánamo Amnesty International has called for urgency in resolving the plight of the forty detainees. Furthermore the Director of Amnesty International USA’s Security with Human Rights Programme has stated that ‘this is about more than just the 40 people still held at Guantánamo - it is also about the crimes under international law committed over the past 19 years and the continuing lack of accountability for them’. On the same day, UN experts stated that ‘Guantánamo is a place of arbitrariness and abuse, a site where torture and ill-treatment was rampant and remains institutionalized, where the rule of law is effectively suspended, and where justice is denied’. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition has argued that the UK government’s decision to no longer undertake a judge-led enquiry into extraordinary rendition means that ‘closure cannot be obtained on the scale of Britain’s facilitation of kidnap and torture’ and that the decision ‘tears up commitments given by a previous administration that there should be a full, judge-led inquiry into extraordinary rendition and Britain’s role in it’. This conference asks – why did Guantanamo happen? Why is the detention centre still open? Why aren’t those allegedly responsible for violating the human rights of countless innocent men being held accountable for their actions? What part did the UK government play in enabling US rendition programmes to the notorious black torture sites? This conference seeks to bring academics, researchers, activists, practitioners and students together in a two-day conference to discuss the implications of Guantanamo's existence. By scheduling the conference to take place over two days the organisers aim to bring together an international meeting of all those active in debating the origins of Guantanamo as a detention centre, accountability for the human rights abuses inflicted there, and the legal and political paths towards its final closure. Keynote Speakers for the event will include: - Mohamedou Ould Salahi (former Guantanamo detainee and author of “Guantanamo Diary”) - Andy Worthington (Guantanamo expert, author of “The Guantanamo Files”, and co-founder of the Close Guantanamo campaign) Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: - Guantanamo and the Rule of Law - Human rights and terrorism - Enhanced Interrogation Techniques - Military Commissions and their role in Guantanamo - Violating the Right to Fair Trial without undue delay - Torture and enforced disappearance - crimes under international law - Extraordinary Rendition and the complicity of the UK government We welcome proposals for individual contributions, panels (of at least three papers) and workshop sessions. There will be a prize for the best paper delivered by a PhD student. We envisage that a selection of papers from this conference will be published as an edited collection. Please indicate whether you would like your abstract to be included in any publication proposal that we may send to publishers. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent by Friday 28th May to Sara Birch at: s.e.bi...@brighton.ac.uk Registration fee of £50. A reduced registration fee of £10 is available for students/those on a low income. Registration details to follow. Brighton University reserves the right to donate any fees not needed to cover conference expenses to the organisations campaigning to close Guantanamo. General enquiries can be sent to the conference organisers Sara Birch or Gina Painter: s.e.bi...@brighton.ac.uk or g.d.pain...@brighton.ac.uk __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/interphil@list.polylog.org/ __________________________________________________
