Ní Aoláin, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and at Queens University in Belfast, told a press conference on Monday that “after two decades of custody, the suffering of those detained is profound, and it’s ongoing. But she had searing words for the treatment of detainees, and for what she described as the continued failure to face up to the US torture program unleashed in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks. In a 23-page report of her visit, Ní Aoláin praises the Biden administration for opening up the camp to her inspection and for being prepared to “address the hardest human rights issues”. The number held has now fallen to 30, including the five prisoners accused of plotting the attacks on New York and Washington on 9/11. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin was granted unprecedented access as an independent UN monitor, spending four days at Guantánamo in February and meeting a range of the 34 prisoners who were then detained.
