Guantanamo at 22

A British-born Muslim, Moazzam Begg is a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner and outreach director for CAGE.

After his release, he became one of the most prominent public-speakers and Muslim advocates for justice and dialogue. 

He is the author of the best-seller Enemy Combatant in which he recounts his experience as an innocent man detained and torture at Guantanamo, Bagram and Kandahar.

The Muslim 500 listed him as one of the 500 “most influential Muslims” in the world.
The New Statesman listed him in the top 50 “Heroes of our time”.

He has travelled extensively to investigate state abuses and western complicity in torture including to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria.

A direct eye-witness to the conflicts in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Syria, his life has been recorded by the Columbia University Oral History project, and the BBC Storyville documentary, The Confession.

Mansoor grew up in a rural village in Yemen. At the age of 19, he was taken to Guantanamo in a case of mistaken identity. He remained imprisoned there for 15 years. In 2016, Mansoor was released, but his plight did not end. He was transferred to Serbia, a country he had no connection with. Despite his daily struggles in Belgrade, Mansoor writes, creates artwork, and advocates for prisoners rights. He has recently published his memoir “Don’t forget us here” (Hachette). His work has been featured by the New York Times, BBC radio, CBC radio, WNYC, and the John Jay College of Justice.

The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, took up her functions on 1 August 2017. She is a University Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota; holder of the Robina Chair in Law, Public Policy, and Society; and faculty director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School. She is concurrently a professor of law at the Queen’s University of Belfast, School of Law.

Former political prisoner, held in Guantanamo.

Former political prisoner held in Guantanamo.

A British attorney who specialises in the areas of civil rights and working against the death penalty in the United States of America. He is the founder of Reprieve and has spent 25 years working on behalf of defendants facing the death penalty in the US. In addition, he has represented more than 80 of the detainees held as enemy combatants since 2002 at the US Guantanamo Bay prison.