Zimbabwe’s Permanent Guantánamo
Last week, the US Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantánamo Bay have the right to habeas corpus – the right to challenge the factual and legal basis of their detention in a court of law. In Zimbabwe, this right – like so many other checks and balances on the arbitrary exercise of power – has been torn away by a repressive state.
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JOHANNESBURG – Last week, the United States Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantánamo Bay have the right to habeas corpus – the right to challenge the factual and legal basis of their detention in a court of law. I was elated by the decision, having spent four years working on ensuring the rule of law in US detention and interrogation policy, including monitoring military commission trials at Guantánamo Bay. But my happiness is tempered by where I sit, close to the border with Zimbabwe – a country where the writ of habeas corpus and the rule of law have become obsolete.