WikiLeaks cables reveal more juveniles detained at Guantanamo Bay than U.S. claimed

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An investigation of Detainee Assessment Briefs (DAB) and other classified documents published by WikiLeaks reveals that fifteen juveniles were detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, three more than the U.S. State Department publicly acknowledged.

The University of California Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas reported that the number of children imprisoned at Guantanamo is almost twice as many as it reported to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“This new report shows that even more children have been imprisoned at Guantánamo than our earlier research revealed,” said Almerindo Ojeda, director of the center and principal investigators for its Guantanamo Testimonials Project. “This is one more reason for a full, independent, and transparent inquiry into the policies and practices of detention we have engaged in since 9/11.”

Thirteen of the juvenile detainees have been released, while another has been convicted of war crimes and another is reported to have committed suicide at the age of 21.

WikiLeaks began to release classified documents related to Guantanamo prisoners in April.

A 2008 study by Andy Worthington, which was drawn from the Pentagon’s own records, found that the total number of juveniles held in Guantanamo at one time was at least 22.