Chapter 6 Conclusions and Recommendations | 133 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 326. As the Inter-American Commission expressed in its Report on Terrorism and Human Rights, now more than ever it is crucial for Member States to ensure that their responses to inexcusable acts of violence such as the terrorist attacks that occurred in the United States on September 11, 2001, faithfully honor the liberties and values upon which the democratic societies of our Hemisphere are built. 395 President Obama expressed very accurately in this regard that Guantanamo is “a facility that should have never been opened [and it] has become a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law.” 396 327. The numbers speak for themselves. In its thirteen years of existence, Guantanamo has reportedly housed 779 prisoners. According to official information, only 8% of Guantanamo detainees were characterized as “fighters” for Al-Qaeda or the Taliban; 93% were not captured by U.S. forces; and most of them were turned over to the United States at a time in which the United States offered bounties for the capture of suspected terrorists. 397 Only eight detainees have so far been convicted by a military commission, which represents approximately 1% of all prisoners ever held at Guantanamo; in two of those cases the material support conviction was overturned on appeal by federal courts. As of January 2015, 122 prisoners were still held in continuing detention at Guantanamo. Further, the handful of ongoing prosecutions before military commissions was at the pre-trial stage and, despite some significant improvements included in the Military Commissions Act in 2009, military commissions still raise important due process concerns. Adding to these figures is also the fact that Guantanamo is probably one of the most expensive prisons in the world. 328. The IACHR reiterates that continuing and indefinite detention of individuals in Guantanamo without the right to due process is arbitrary and constitutes a clear violation of international law;398 and that detention for the sole purpose of obtaining intelligence is a violation of Article I of the American Declaration. As 395 396 397 398 IACHR, Report on Terrorism and Human Rights, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.116.Doc.5 rev.1, October 22, 2002, Preface. Speech of President Obama at the National Defense University on May 23, 2013. Available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/23/remarks-president-national-defense-university See in this regard, Mark Denbeaux, Report on Guantanamo Detainees: A Profile of 517 Detainees through Analysis of Department of Defense Data, Seaton Hall University School of Law Report (2006). Available at: http://law.shu.edu/publications/guantanamoReports/guantanamo_report_final_2_08_06.pdf IACHR, Press Release 29/13: IACHR, UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, UN Rapporteur on Torture, UN Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, and UN Rapporteur on Health Reiterate Need to End the Indefinite Detention of Individuals at Guantanamo Naval Base in Light of Current Human Rights Crisis, May 1, 2013. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR