Montevideo, September 30 (Mercopress-RHC) -- The Organization of American States Secretary General, Jose Miguel Insulza, has “urged the United States to close the Guantanamo Bay facility without delay and arrange for the trial or release of the detainees,” calling on member countries to consider receiving detainees from Guantanamo.

The OAS through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has followed the Guantanamo base situation and has repeatedly asked for the detainees to be treated in accordance with regional norms regarding human rights, to which OAS member countries have adhered.

And so, in the framework for the IACHR Resolution from July 2012, “I respectfully request that those countries that can do so, in a manner consistent with their national policies and their internal legal framework, consider receiving people currently detained in Guantanamo, in order to allow them to resume their lives following their prolonged detention”, said Insulza in an official OAS release.

Insulza said that despite the efforts made by the government of U.S. President Barack Obama, “more than half of the prisoners that remain in Guantanamo could be freed, but have not been released for the lack of a country that will receive them.”

The Government of the United States has requested that the countries of the Hemisphere examine the possibility of receiving these people in their territories.

Since 2009, 18 countries have hosted a total of 48 detained people, reducing the list to 149. Of this number, 79 are in conditions to be freed, if some country will receive them. A positive response to receive a reduced number of them, who do not present a risk to security, would contribute to significantly reducing this serious humanitarian case in the territory of the Americas.