“The United States must respect and guarantee the life, health and personal integrity of detainees at the Guantánamo Naval Base, particularly in the context of the current hunger strike,” a group of international experts on human rights, arbitrary detention, torture, counter-terrorism and health said in a news release from the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR).

The experts, who comprise the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, added that they have received specific information about severe and prolonged physiological and psychological damage caused by the high degree of uncertainty the detainees face over basic aspects of their lives, such as not knowing whether they will be tried or whether they will be released and when; or whether they will see their family members again.

The Commission also urged the US Government to adopt concrete measures to end the indefinite detention of persons; to ensure the detainees are either released or prosecuted in accordance with due process and the principles and standards of international human rights law; and to allow for independent monitoring by international human rights bodies.

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he would recommit himself to closing the Cuba-based prison, a goal he has voiced at least three times in the past four years but which is hampered by Congressional opposition.

“You can’t just set up something like that and keep it in perpetuity, which is in fact what Congress has made possible by bringing in a new law in the beginning of the year called the National Defence Authorization Act which essentially provides for the indefinite military detention without charge or trial of detainees at Guantánamo Bay,” Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office told UN Radio.

In a statement, the Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, noted that the indefinite detention of individuals, most of whom have not been charged, “goes far beyond a minimally reasonable period of time and causes a state of suffering, stress, fear and anxiety, which in itself constitutes a form of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”

Around half of the 166 detainees in the centre have been cleared for transfer to their home countries or third countries for resettlement. “All relevant security-related Government agencies or authorities have expressly certified that those detainees do not represent a threat to US security,” said the Special Rapporteur on countering terrorism, Ben Emmerson.

However, the cleared detainees continue to remain in the centre, alongside those reportedly designated for indefinite detention.

“Of those, 56 are Yemeni nationals who have been denied release based solely on their nationality and on the political situation in Yemen, which constitutes a clear violation of the principle of non-discrimination and renders their detention arbitrary and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law,” explained El Hadji Malick Sow, who currently heads the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Last month, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said she was “deeply disappointed” by the US inaction on closing the centre. She also noted that the continued incarceration of cleared detainees raised serious concerns under international law and severely undermined US stance as an upholder of human rights.

Speaking with UN Radio today, Mr. Colville said the ongoing hunger strike is a manifestation of the uncertainty felt by the detainees.

“One can only imagine the feelings of these people who one minute they’re told they’re cleared for transfer home and then it doesn’t happen. You’ve got now this hunger strike which is really a symptom of extreme desperation,” he said.

According to media reports, 21 of the reported 100 striking detainees are being force-fed a nutritional supplement through tubes inserted in their noses.

While the individual circumstances of those detainees are unclear, the UN Special Rapporteur on health, Anand Grover, stressed that “health care personnel may not apply undue pressure of any sort on individuals who have opted for the extreme recourse of a hunger strike.”

She added that it is also not acceptable to use threats of forced feeding or other types of physical or psychological coercion against individuals who have voluntarily decided to go on a hunger strike.

Independent experts, such as the special rapporteurs cited, are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back, in an unpaid capacity, on specific human rights themes.

At a White House press briefing on Tuesday Obama said the prison at Guantanamo “needs to be closed” and committed to reviewing administrative steps and reengaging with Congress to do so. The president’s remarks came amid reports that more than 100 prisoners at Guantanamo were participating in a hunger strike and that the military is force feeding many of them.

US President Barack Obama should move swiftly to fulfill newly repeated promises to end indefinite detention without trial at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

“President Obama’s call to end indefinite detention at Guantanamo is encouraging after his long silence on the issue,” said Laura Pitter, counterterrorism advisor at Human Rights Watch.

“Though he blamed Congress for the problems at Guantanamo, there are actions he could have taken and can still take now to end indefinite detention there.”

When Obama first took office in 2009, he promised to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay within one year. More than four years later, 166 prisoners remain imprisoned, only a handful of whom face charges.

Obama has pointed to congressional restrictions on transfers of prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay prison as an obstacle to closure of the prison, but he himself has repeatedly signed those restrictions into law, Human Rights Watch said. And the restrictions are not a complete bar – instead, they require the Defense Secretary to ensure certain conditions have been met in the transfer countries.

Of the prisoners now at Guantanamo, the Obama administration has in the past designated 86 for transfer to their home or third countries if security conditions could be met.

The media has reported that the military has deployed “medical reinforcements” to the prisons to assist with feedings of at least 21 of the hunger strikers who have refused sustenance. Five prisoners are reportedly hospitalized.

Palestinian leaders and human rights groups on Tuesday accused Israeli prison authorities for Abu Hamdiyeh’s death, saying that the prisoner did not receive treatment until his cancer had spread.

“The death of Abu Hamdya can be labeled as direct assignation where Israel left him to die without providing him the required medications. Abu Hamdya suffered larynx cancer for the past few months,” UFree Network to defend the rights of Palestinian prisoners said in a statement.

“Despite his chronic disease, Maysra was medically ignored by Israeli prison authorities. He was denied health care and admitted to the hospital very late.”

According, to his family, many requests were made so specialized doctors can see him. However, the Israelis refused all those requests and continue to give him normal pain killers instead of real medical treatment.

Meanwhile, an official Palestinian human rights report has affirmed that chronic disease had spread among Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails, according to the Palestinian Information Center.

A report by the ministry of prisoners in Ramallah on Monday said that 25 Palestinian prisoners are cancer-stricken due to medical neglect in Israeli prisons.

It said that most of the cancer cases were detected after spreading in the body of the victims.

The Information Center at the Ministry of Health in Ramallah said that cancer was the second-leading cause of death in Palestine during the last year, after heart disease.

More than 4,500 Palestinians are held as prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel claims most of them intended or carried out anti-Israeli attacks.

Arafat Jaradat’s autopsy showed torture, while his heart was in good condition, PA Minister of Detainee Affairs said Sunday, according to Maan news agency.

A spokeswoman for Israel’s Prison Authority said Saturday that Jaradat had apparently died of cardiac arrest in Megiddo prison. The spokesman added that the injuries found in the autopsy could have been caused by the medical emergency team’s efforts to resuscitate Jaradat.

The 30-year-old man from Sair near Hebron in the occupied West Bank was arrested last Monday for alleged involvement in a November 2012 stone-throwing incident that injured an Israeli, according to Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, Al Jazeera reported.

Several thousand Palestinian prisoners held by Israel observed a one-day fast to protest Jaradat’s death.

It’s worth noting that over 207 Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli jails. Many of them were killed under torture and medical negligence. At the moment a number of prisoners are on a hunger strike.

“It’s widely known that Israel one of the top countries that constantly violates International laws. Yet, this fact did not drive an International action or pressure. Torture continued to be an integral part of the policy of this state. Meanwhile, no inspection against these prisons was carried out. There were also no reports that denounced what Israelis have been doing over the past decades.” UFree to defend the rights if Palestinians said.

UFree also expressed its fear over the health conditions of many Palestinian prisoners as Israel is medically neglecting their basic needs. It also calls on International organisations like the Red Cross, Amnesty and others to reveal all illegal practices committed by Israel and escalate them to the United Nations and the international community and European Union bodies.

Jailed Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has reportedly been on hunger strike for more than a month, told her husband Reza Khandan on November 20 that she was on an “unlimited” hunger strike – as reported on his Facebook page.

Sotoudeh, who was awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought this year, defended political activists, opposition members, and juvenile offenders on death row before she was jailed in September 2010.

Khandan said he was allowed to meet Sotoudeh one day after she was transferred from solitary confinement to the general ward of Section 209 at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. He said that his wife’s weight had dropped to 43 kilograms.

“I asked her, ‘How long will you continue your hunger strike?’” he wrote. “She said: ‘The hunger strike is unlimited. You know what ‘unlimited’ means?’”

Khandan has repeatedly informed the public about the conditions of his jailed wife via Facebook, which has in recent years become a platform for news that is censored or ignored by Iran’s state-controlled media.

Sotoudeh was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from working as a lawyer for 10 years on charges that include acting against Iran’s national security and spreading propaganda against the Islamic regime.

A mother of two, Sotoudeh reportedly stopped eating in mid-October after prison authorities prevented her relatives from visiting her. Her husband and 12-year-old daughter have also been barred from leaving Iran.

“I can’t sit here and do nothing and let them do whatever they want with my child and family,” Sotoudeh was quoted by her husband as saying in their prison meeting this week.

An October 24 editorial in Britain’s “The Guardian” likened Sotoudeh to Burmese pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who was also once separated from her children.

“These individuals are protesting against their detention without charges and are suffering immensely for it,” said the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Richard Falk, in a news release. “There is no acceptable basis for continuing to hold these persons, and Israel will be responsible if any permanent harm results.”

The two prisoners are Mahmoud Sarsak, who is on the 82nd day of his hunger strike, and Akram Rikhawi, who is on the 58th day of his hunger strike.

“Mr. Sarsak has lost one third of his body weight and Mr. Rikhawi is suffering from aggravated diabetes and asthma,” Mr. Falk said. “If Israeli officials cannot present evidence to support charges against these men, then they must be released immediately.”

“Israel must end the appalling and unjust treatment of Palestinian prisoners and the international community needs to raise its voice and take steps to end Israel’s flagrant misuse of administrative detention,” the Special Rapporteur added.

In December last year, Palestinian prisoners began a series of hunger strikes, Mr. Falk noted, adding that the strikes have “called attention to Israel’s abusive reliance on administrative detention, but also to conditions that fail to meet legal standards of international humanitarian law for the more than 4,000 Palestinians imprisoned.”

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Israel currently has approximately 300 Palestinians detained without charges.

“I have requested information regarding each of these persons and I will follow up on each case and address this matter in my forthcoming report to the Human Rights Council,” Mr. Falk said. His report to the Council is due on 2 July 2012.

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not United Nations staff, nor are they paid for their work.

“I am on a hunger strike to defend press freedom, our sole gain in the revolution,” the 36-year-old told the agency. Five other bloggers have joined in the hunger strike to defend press freedom.

“The soldier who deprived Ramzi of his work equipment is depriving us Tunisians of the right to information,” a colleague wrote. The army however said there was a ban on filming the hearings.

Bettaieb says he wanted to highlight the plight of those whose relatives were killed in the crackdown by the Ben Ali regime to stifle the revolt, which claimed some 340 lives and saw nearly 2,200 injured, according to the government, says AFP.

Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia after being toppled in a popular uprising, last year, is being tried in absentia. His co-accused are ex-senior officials being prosecuted for the deaths of at least 22 people during the January 2011 pro-democracy protests in the towns of Thala and Kasserine. Many of the victims died when security forces fired live rounds.

“The Secretary-General continues to follow with concern the ongoing hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, in particular those held in what is known as administrative detention,” according to information provided by his spokesperson.

“He reiterates that those detained must be charged and face trial with judicial guarantees, or released without delay,” he added.

More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners began an open-ended hunger strike two weeks ago, on 17 April,  which was Palestinian Prisoners Day to protest against unjust arrest procedures, arbitrary detention and bad prison conditions, according to the UN human rights office (OHCHR).

Earlier, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, said he was deeply troubled by reports about the critical condition of at least two Palestinians being held by Israel, who are marking their 71st day without eating in protest at their being held without charge under a procedure known as administrative detention which allows Israel to hold suspects without notice for renewable periods of up to six months, urged the Government to preserve the health of the prisoners.

Ban’s staement came in response to protests by Palestinians who blocked UN offices in the West Bank on Wednesday to demand action over hunger striking prisoners, prompting UN chief Ban Ki-Moon to demand Israel to stop the detainees’ condition deterioration, according to AFP.

Until now, Israel has rejected all appeals made by the hunger strikers, has refused them family visits and only briefly transferred one of them to a civilian hospital, AFP reported.

According to Amnesty’s urgent call, “Two Palestinian hunger strikers’ lives are in danger, as the Israeli Supreme Court has delayed ruling on the appeal against their detention without charge or trial. Other administrative detainees on hunger strike are still denied access to independent doctors.”

“Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh’s petition to the Israeli Supreme Court against their administrative detention was heard on 3 May, but the judges have yet to issue a decision. Both have been on hunger strike since around 29 February, and both have told their lawyers that they have been ill-treated by Israel Prison Service (IPS) staff and physicians,”  Amensty added.

The alert also raises the cases of Hassan Safadi, Omar Abu Shalal, Jaafar Izz al-Din, and Mahmoud Sarsak, hunger strikers who remain at Ramleh prison clinic and have not been allowed to see independent doctors.

Amnesty urges everyone reading their action alert to contact Israeli authorities using the addresses they provide to demand the release of the men.

Amnesty International has repeatedly urged Israel to end the practice of administrative detention (including detention under the Unlawful Combatant Law), as it has stated that  it violates the internationally recognized right to a fair trial, which must be upheld for all detainees, including those accused of violence, even under states of emergency.

A senior United Nations official expressed his concern friday by reports about the critical condition of the two Palestinians being held by Israel and urged the Government to preserve the health of the prisoners

At least 1,550 Palestinians in Israeli jails are now taking part in a mass hunger strike, Israel’s Prison Service said on Wednesday.

Mr. Falk urged the international community to intervene on her behalf. “Israel ought to end its inhumane treatment of Ms. Shalabi. Release her immediately.”

He noted that Ms. Shalabi’s hunger strike “is against Israel’s abusive use of detention without charges and the degrading and physically harsh treatment administered during her arrest, interrogation, and detention process.”

Ms. Shalabi was arrested on 16 February and has been on hunger strike since. “She is being held in solitary confinement. She has been treated inhumanely. In the presence of her family she was blindfolded and treated roughly by several of the 50 Israeli soldiers sent to arrest her, as was her brother who tried to protect her,” said Mr. Falk.

The expert voiced further concern that Ms. Shalabi’s 65-year-old mother and 67-year-old father also committed themselves to a hunger strike on 23 February.

He denounced the silence over Ms. Shalabi’s fate in Israel and the international community, and called on the Israeli authorities not to continue to disregard their responsibilities under international law.

“The abusive treatment of Palestinian prisoners by Israel remains a cause of grave concern and the international community must continue to raise its voice for those risking their own lives to end injustice,” said Mr. Falk.

Earlier this year, the independent expert twice appealed for the release of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, who staged a 66-day hunger strike in protest of his humiliating detention and treatment by Israeli security forces. Israeli authorities have agreed to release him in mid-April. Mr. Falk said that Israel currently has approximately 300 Palestinians detained without charges.

“I have requested information regarding each of these persons,” he said. “I intend to follow up on each case and address this matter in my forthcoming report to the Human Rights Council.” There are also an estimated 4,400 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, he added.