Justice For Dad
"It's my Dad in a helicopter and they are taking him up and I'm shouting his name and he's shouting my name...They're taking him to Guantanamo."
As Mohammed El-Banna was being filmed, his father had been held without charge for five years in Guantanamo, the US military prison on the island of Cuba.
After Justice For Dad was made, in December 2007, Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes finally returned home to the UK. The film is a powerful document of two families' long wait for justice as their loved ones are denied their human right to a fair trial.
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In January 2009, within his first 48 hours in office, President Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo. |
We encourage you to share with your students the latest developments in the news, and to get them discussing this important and topical controversial issue:
- Revisit the Justice For Dad lesson plan below to remind students of the issue at hand.
- As a follow up students could look at the arguments Obama puts forward for closing Guantanamo Bay, and consider which human rights values and articles support his position.
- We have also produced a lesson on the use of torture against suspected terrorists here
Useful information:
Human rights values - a summary of the values that underpin human rights:
Fairness (justice)
Respect
Equality
Dignity
Autonomy (freedom)
Human rights articles - a selection of relevant articles from the UDHR:
Article 3: The right to life and to live in safety
Article 5: The right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
Article 9: The right to be free from arbitrary detention
Article 10: The right to a fair trial
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Justice For Dad
The Justice For Dad lesson plan and worksheets enable students to consider the case for and against Guantánamo and to form their own opinion:
1 The class consider the case for Guantánamo through analysis of a US Whitehouse
press release.
2 Through viewing and discussing Justice For Dad, students consider the case against Guantánamo.
3 Both sides of the argument are weighed up.
4 Students can express their view by designing a card, symbolically shaped as
an orange jumpsuit, and sending it to Amnesty.
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Lesson resources:
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Background: |
A lesson to investigate the characteristics of a fair trial as outlined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This can be used as a standalone lesson or alongside Justice For Dad: |
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Guantánamo action centre
Did you think Guantánamo should be closed and the detainees given a fair trial or released?
Visit the Guantánamo action centre to find out what other young people across the UK thought!
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What happened next after we finished filming?
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13 Dec 2007: Anas El-Banna is named Person of the Year 2007
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19 Dec 2007: Guantánamo: Return of UK residents welcomed
On their return Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes were both detained before being released on bail pending a full hearing of a request for their extradition to Spain. Both Jamil and Omar are victims of serious and protracted human rights violations. Amnesty urges that the current extradition proceedings in the UK, and any criminal proceedings against them that might follow, should be conducted in accordance with the standards of fairness required by international human rights law, and should be as prompt as they can fairly be. Read the full update |
For news of events between the release of Jamil and Omar, and January 2009 when President Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo, go to our news database.
