The United States has excluded most law from Guantánamo Bay for decades. It should reverse that position now and provide medical care for its declining detainees.

The occasion is the latest convening of the Human Rights Committee on the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). A U.S. delegation will face independent United Nations experts on the Committee, tasked with assessing compliance with the ICCPR, who will once again question U.S. treaty violations at Guantánamo Bay. The U.S. presentation provides an opportunity for President Biden to take a significant step forward and recognize the application of international law to the medical needs of an aging detainee population that is fast deteriorating from the effects of torture and harsh conditions.