After having criticized President Bush for the expense and inhumanity of maintaining Guantánamo Bay, President Obama had pledged to close the prison within a year of coming to office. Yet, opposition from Congress has contributed to slowing down the challenging process of finding safe and humane means of resettling Guantánamo prisoners.

Since Feb. 6, 2013, Guantánamo Bay detainees have been striking in protest of mandatory Quran searches. With up to 106 prisoners refusing food at any given time within the ten-month period, vowing to "strike to the death," prisoners have been adamant in their objections to what they see as a violation of their rights of religious practice and individual freedoms. The protest has won international attention, further bolstered by the fact that dozens of detainees have been force-fed during the hunger-strike. Detainee Sami Naji Al Hasan even published an op-ed with the New York Times detailing his experience being force-fed.

On April 5, the UN human rights chief ordered the United States to close down the Guantánamo Bay prison. The UN claimed that such indefinite imprisonment of the detainees without charge or trail was not only inhumane, but violated international law. "We must be clear about this: The United States is in clear breach not just of its own commitments but also of international laws and standards that it is obliged to uphold," declared the UN high commissioner for human rights. 

After two years of research, on April 16, 2013, a bipartisan task force released “The Report of the Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment.” With Republican and Democratic government officials, retired generals, judges, lawyers, and professors collaborating on the 560-page study, a need to investigate “indisputable” evidence of torture at Guantánamo Bay. 

On April 30, 2013, President Obama renewed his promises to close Guantánamo Bay. Perhaps inspired by the drama of the hunger strike, he promised to work more with congress to take the steps necessary to free the 100+ detainees as rapidly as possible. “President Obama’s call to end indefinite detention at Guantanamo is encouraging after his long silence on the issue,” said Laura Pitter, counterterrorism advisor at Human Rights Watch. 

The House took a step backwards on June 6, 2013 by approving a defense policy bill that prevented attempted to close Guantánamo Bay. The House Armed Services Committee approved a bill that restricted the release and transfer of detainees. It effectively kept the naval detention center open by banning the Defense Department from spending money to build or modify facilities that could potentially house terror suspects, but allowed money to be spend to upgrade the existing Guantánamo Bay detention center. 

July 26, 2013 brought news of two more Guantánamo departures. With the permission of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, two unidentified low-level detainees were returned to Algeria. 

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced on Oct. 8, that Paul Lewis would serves as Special Envoy to oversee the eventual closing of Guantánamo Bay. Lewis’s position was created for him to facilitate the transfer of Guantánamo detainees. “This announcement reflects the department's commitment to implementing the president's directive to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay,” said Hagel. 

On Dec. 31, 2013, after 12 years of detention, three Guantánamo Bay detainees departed for Slovakia. The men, Uighurs from northwestern China, had been detained in Afghanistan as potential allies of the Taliban. After deeming them innocent, the U.S. was unable to figure out how to safely return the men without endangering the men or angering the Chinese government. In 2009 Slovakia had accepted three Guantánamo prisoners from various countries, and agreed to accept these three men as well, as “persons who have been neither suspected nor accused of the crime of terrorism.” 155 detainees remain imprisoned in Guantánamo.

 

Contact Executive Producer Sara Newman here. Follow her on Twitter.