Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

to move:

That the House:

(1)

note:

(a)

the report by independent experts for the United Nations Human Rights Commission that calls for the immediate closure of the United States military’s Guantanamo Bay detention centre;

(b)

that United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has strongly supported the call for the immediate closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility;

(c)

that the United Nations investigators held the view that the legal regime applied to the persons detained at Guantanamo Bay seriously undermines the rule of law and a number of fundamental, universally recognised human rights;

(d)

that numerous eminent international and Australian lawyers, including former High Court judge, Mary Gaudron, have expressed the view that the United States Military Commission processes applied to Guantanamo Bay detainees is fundamentally flawed and contrary to the rule of law and the right to a fair trial; and

(e)

the decision of the United States Supreme Court in July 2006 that the United States Military Commission process was illegal and that the treatment of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay has been in violation of the Geneva Conventions;

(f)

that an Australian citizen, Mr David Hicks, has now been detained at Guantanamo Bay without trial for more than four-and-a-half years; and

(2)

call on the Australian Government to:

(a)

repudiate its support for Mr Hicks’ detention at Guantanamo Bay and prospective trial by a reconstituted United States Military Commission;

(b)

take all necessary measures to ensure that Mr Hicks is dealt with according to internationally recognised standards of justice, most importantly the right to a fair trial; and in the absence of such a process, insist that the United States Government agree to the immediate return of Mr Hicks to Australia; and

(c)

support the United Nations Secretary-General’s call for the immediate closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.