Three students from the International Human Rights Law Clinic are in Washington, D.C. this week to conduct a round of Capitol Hill meetings on a new policy paper that calls on the U.S. to help former Guantánamo Bay detainees reintegrate into their communities.
The trip culminates over a semester of work for clinic interns Nandini Iyer ’10, Krista Kshatriya ‘10, and Jonas Lerman ’10. The interns were supervised by clinic Director and Clinical Professor Laurel Fletcher, the clinic’s Program Officer and Lecturer Jamie O’Connell, and Human Rights Center Faculty Director and Adjunct Professor Eric Stover.
“Repairing the damage of Guantánamo is one of the most pressing human rights issues we face as a nation,” Kshatriya says. “Our research reveals an urgent need for reintegration programs for detainees released from Guantánamo.”
The group plans to meet with representatives from the offices of senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), as well as a number of nonprofit organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First.
The International Human Rights Law Clinic and UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center released the policy paper this week. It’s titled “Returning Home: Resettlement and Reintegration of Detainees Released from the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.” [Download the paper here.]
This paper recommends that the U.S. promote programs to assist detainees released from the U.S. detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to reintegrate into their communities. These programs should be an integral part of any comprehensive plan to close the camp.
Based on a review of available data on released detainees, as well as analysis of similar reintegration programs, the paper finds that providing assistance to released Guantánamo detainees will help support U.S. national security, repair America’s image abroad, and provide an appropriate humanitarian response to detainees held for years in U.S. custody without trial or conviction.
The policy paper proposes the establishment of comprehensive, locally-tailored resettlement and reintegration programs. These programs should include short-term financial assistance and job support, an opportunity for former detainees to clear their names, and mental and physical health services for those who want them.
An Under-examined Problem
Most of the policy focus on the Guantánamo Bay has been on the detainees who remain there. However, to date, the U.S. has released more than 500 detainees, and this number is expected to grow in the coming months. Many of these men were detained in error, due to flawed in intelligence; many never posed a threat to the U.S., the paper says.
However, the U.S. still has no formal program for helping these released detainees reenter their communities and begin to rebuild their lives. Few released detainees have received reintegration assistance of any kind—from the United States, from their home governments, or from private organizations—and upon their return home, they often face difficulties finding work, overcoming physical and psychological problems, and being fully accepted by their communities.
Lerman, Kshatriya, and Iyer all hope to work in the fields of human rights and international development after graduating.
“This project was a great first step toward the kind of work we hope to do after we leave Berkeley Law,” says Lerman. “I feel really lucky to have been a part of the clinic.”