GUANTANAMO24: THE FIRST WITNESS
Event Details
As Guantánamo approaches 24 years, we face a defining choice: allow an architecture of torture and disappearance to stand or confront it.
This event will provide an insight into the case of Abu Zubaydah the Palestinian prisoner chosen as the blueprint for the CIA’s torture and rendition programme rendered invisible through statelessness and buried in a legal black hole for nearly a quarter century.
What was done to him did not end at Guantánamo.
The systems and torture techniques have evolved and have been normalised from Guantánamo to ICE detention centres, from CIA black sites to the extrajudicial rendition of political prisoners and now political leaders, including the Venezuelan president.
At its core, this is about honouring the sacrifices of the men still detained and those released. Their endurance, their testimonies, and the dignity they have preserved in the face of systematic erasure. Their suffering is not symbolic; it is a living indictment that demands ownership and action.
This event traces that unbroken line and asks what responsibility it places on us now.
