Lawfulness of detentions by the United States in Guantanamo Bay, Resolution 1433 (2005), Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, April 26, 2005 [condemning US detention practices at Guantanamo Bay and calling on the US to adhere to international legal standards on the treatment of prisoners]. Excerpt:

On the basis of an extensive review of legal and factual material from these and other reliable sources, the Assembly concludes that the circumstances surrounding detentions by the USA at Guantanamo Bay show unlawfulness and inconsistency with the rule of law, on the following grounds:

i. many if not all detainees have been subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment occurring as a direct result of official policy, authorised at the very highest levels of government;

ii. many detainees have been subjected to ill-treatment amounting to torture which has occurred systematically and with the knowledge and complicity of the US Government;

iii. the rights of those detained in connection with the international armed conflict previously conducted by the USA in Afghanistan to be presumptively recognised as prisoners-of-war (POWs) and to have their status independently determined by a competent tribunal were not respected;

iv. there have been numerous violations of various aspects of all detainees' rights to liberty and security of the person, making their detention arbitrary;

v. there have been numerous violations of various aspects of all detainees' rights to fair trial, amounting to a flagrant denial of justice;

vi. the USA has engaged in the unlawful practice of secret detention;

vii. the USA has, by practicing "rendition" (removal of persons to other countries, without judicial supervision, for purposes such as interrogation or detention), allowed detainees to be subjected to torture and to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, in violation of the principle of non-refoulement;

viii. US proposals to return or transfer detainees to other countries, even where reliant on "diplomatic assurances" concerning the detainees' subsequent treatment, risk violating the principle of non-refoulement.

Read the full text of the resolution. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.