This piece of textile art – Guantanamo (2014) - was given the Judges’ Award at the annual Festival of Quilts in 2014 at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham.

The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison located within the Guantanamo Bay naval base which is on the coast of Cuba. It was set up in the aftermath of 9/11 in 2001 and the Bush declaration of a war on terror. The inmates were detained illegally without trial and inmates were allegedly tortured. Amnesty International saw the operations of this camp as a major breach of human rights.

In February 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden declared his intention to shut down the facility but few steps have been taken to this end. Thirty prisoners remain in 2023.

I am a supporter of Reprieve, the organization founded in 1999 by Clive Stafford-Smith, the British human rights lawyer, to campaign against the death penalty across the globe and provide free legal and investigative support to those on death row and others victimised by abusive counter-terror policies. Clive Stafford-Smith has represented the legal interests of many held in Guantanamo.

My Guantanamo piece measures 41.5” x 51.5”.