Mr President, Commissioner, the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party has always given the highest priority to the fight for human rights. It means a lot to us that individual persons each be guaranteed both their fundamental freedoms and their basic rights. It is therefore a special honour for me to be rapporteur for this report with a proposal for a European Parliament recommendation to the Council on the Guantánamo detainees’ right to a fair trial. Everyone in this House agrees that international terrorism must be fought. There is therefore no intention behind this report to place a question mark over the fight against terrorism. It has been prepared in order to emphasise that, even in a just cause, there are some quite fundamental rules that have to be obeyed, namely respect for the individual person’s rights, as laid down in the UN Convention on Human Rights and in the Geneva Conventions. In this case, it is, as has already been pointed out, particularly a question of the right to a fair trial and to treatment in accordance with international law. Since January 2002, approximately 660 people from 38 different countries have been held prisoner at the American naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. We know for certain that 87 of them, and perhaps more, have now been released, but by far the majority of them are still there. They do not know of what they have been accused, they have still not been brought before a judge, and no one knows whether or, if occasion should arise, when they are to be so. The detainees are in a legal vacuum. They are regarded either as ordinary criminals or as war criminals. As ordinary criminals, they should be safeguarded by American law but, according to a court of appeal in Washington, the naval base does not fall under American jurisdiction since it is not a proper part of the United States. Another court of appeal in San Francisco has rejected this argument, but this court of appeal is also the court in the United States whose decisions are most often overturned in the Supreme Court, so it is doubtful whether its pronouncement will be of any consequence. On its own initiative, the American Supreme Court has decided to investigate whether American jurisdiction should also apply to the Guantánamo naval base, and a response is awaited by no later than June of this year. Nor, according to the American authorities, are the detainees at the naval base prisoners of war, and they are thus not protected by the Geneva Conventions, either. The detainees were not part of a regular army when they were taken prisoner. They had no rank or uniforms and did not openly bear arms. Instead, the detainees are regarded by the American authorities as illegal combatants who do not come within known legal systems and who can be detained for an unspecified period without being tried or given access to lawyers. That is the situation of the prisoners. They do not know what they are charged with, and whether or when they can be given fair trials. This is a clear violation of human rights and a breach of international conventions, and the report therefore requests the United States immediately to bring the detainees out of the legal vacuum they are in and guarantee them immediate access to legal assistance, which will clarify the legal status of each individual detainee. It is important to emphasise in this connection that the report applies not only to the European prisoners, but to all the prisoners and to their individual rights as human beings. The report supports the Council position according to which the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of prisoners of war is to be interpreted in such a way that, in case of doubt, the detainees at the Guantánamo naval base are to be treated as prisoners of war until and unless it is decided that they do not fulfil the conditions. Thereafter, they may, if occasion should arise, fall within either the Third Geneva Convention, which applies to legal combatants, thereby affording them status and protection as prisoners of war, or within the Fourth Geneva Convention, which applies to civilians. In the report, we also request the American Government to confirm that the temporary military commission, set up in November 2001, is complying with all the international laws, just as we request the American authorities to give representatives of the states concerned and of international institutions, as well as family members and independent observers, access to the detainees as visitors. The EU and the United States have always been allies. We have always had, have now and shall in the future retain a good relationship with the United States. The report states that the transatlantic relationship is invaluable and irreplaceable and could be a formidable force for good in the world, but only if basic human rights – such as the right to fair trial and the prohibition on arbitrary detention – are respected and remain the core values shared by the United States and the EU. We therefore call upon the United States fully to comply with the obligations it has itself assumed in relation to international law and international humanitarian law. The report recommends to the Council that the issue of the conditions under which the Guantánamo detainees are being held be addressed at the summit that is to take place between the EU and the United States in June 2004. We want a common action plan for the fight against terrorism to be devised – an action plan that combines resolve and action against terrorism with full respect for international humanitarian standards. I should like to thank my fellow MEPs in this House for the many positive contributions I have received from them in connection with this work and for the almost unanimous adoption by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy of the proposal for a recommendation.

Political group: ELDR