Focus: Shutting Down Guantanamo

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CIAO Focus, February 2009: Shutting Down Guantanamo

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a surveillance term defined by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and by the European Centre for the Epidemiological Monitoring of AIDS (EuroHIV). The term AIDS applies to the most advanced stages of HIV infection, defined by the occurrence of any of more than 20 opportunistic infections or HIV-related cancers.

According to estimates by WHO and UNAIDS, 33.2 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2007. That same year, some 2.5 million people became newly infected, and 2.1 million died of AIDS, including 330 000 children. Two thirds of HIV infections are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Approximately 3 million people in low- and middle-income countries were receiving HIV antiretroviral therapy at the end of 2007. Until 2003, the high cost of the medicines, weak or inadequate health-care infrastructure, and lack of financing prevented wide use of combination antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries. But in recent years, increased political and financial commitment has allowed dramatic expansion of access to HIV therapy.

Source: World Health Organization

From the CIAO Database:

After Guantánamo: The Case Against Preventive Detention

I’m just talking about the law”: Guantánamo and the Lawyers

Avoiding Transfers to Torture

The Dilemma of the Yemeni Detainees at Guantanamo Bay

Imbalance of Powers: How Changes to U.S. Law and Policy since 9/11 Erode Human Rights and Civil Liberties

Outside Sources: *

Closing the Guantanamo Detention Center: Legal Issues (Congressional Research Service)
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40139_20090122.pdf

Executive Order: Closure of Guantanamo Detention Facilities (White House)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ClosureOfGuantanamoDetentionFacilities/

Guantanamo in Pictures (The Atlantic)
http://www.theatlantic.com/slideshows/guantanamo/

Guantanamo: Dangers of a preventive detention law (Human Rights Watch)
http://www.hrw.org/en/category/topic/counterterrorism/guantanamo

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay (NPR audios)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4711397

Letter urging EU member states to offer humanitarian protection to Guantanamo detainees
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/Gitmo-GAERC FMs letter_Jan 22 09_0.pdf

* Outside links are not maintained. For broken outside links, CIAO recommends the Way Back Machine.