{ "id": "RL32395", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "RL32395", "active": false, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 309407, "date": "2005-10-27", "retrieved": "2016-04-07T19:29:02.617029", "title": "U.S. Treatment of Prisoners in Iraq: Selected Legal Issues", "summary": "Photographs depicting the apparent abuse of Iraqi detainees at the hands of U.S. military\npersonnel\nat Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq resulted in numerous investigations, congressional hearings, and\nprosecutions, raising questions regarding the applicable law. The international law of armed conflict,\nin particular, those parts relating to belligerent occupation, applies in Iraq. The four Geneva\nConventions of 1949 related to the treatment of prisoners of war (POW) and civilian detainees, as\nwell as the Hague Regulations define the status of detainees and state responsibility for their\ntreatment. Other international law relevant to human rights and to the treatment of prisoners may\nalso apply. For example, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits\n\u201ccruel,\ninhuman or degrading treatment.\u201d The U.N. Declaration on Human Rights and the U.N.\nConvention\nAgainst Torture (CAT) is also relevant. Federal statutes that implement the relevant international\nlaw, such as the War Crimes Act of 1996 and the Torture Victim Protection Act, as well as other\ncriminal statutes with extraterritorial application may also come into play. Finally, the law of Iraq\nas amended by regulations that were issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) may apply\nin some circumstances.\n \n This report summarizes pertinent provisions of the Geneva Conventions Relative to the\nTreatment of Victims of War (Geneva Conventions) and other relevant international agreements. \nThe report begins with a discussion of international and U.S. standards pertaining to the treatment\nof prisoners. A discussion of accountability in case of breach of these standards follows, including\npotential means of asserting jurisdiction over alleged violators, either in military courts under the\nUniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) or U.S. federal courts, by applying U.S. criminal statutes\nthat explicitly apply extraterritorially or within the special maritime or territorial jurisdiction of the\nUnited States (as defined in 18 U.S.C. Section 7), or by means of the Military Extraterritorial\nJurisdiction Act (MEJA). The section that follows discusses international requirements to provide\nredress for those whose treatment at the hands of U.S. officials may have fallen below the standards\noutlined in the first section of the report. Finally, the report summarizes relevant congressional\nactivity during the 108th and 109th Congresses, including a brief discussion of the anti-torture\nprovision of P.L.109-13 ( H.R. 1268 ) as well as relevant pending legislation\n( H.R. 3003 , S. 12 , H.R. 112 , H.R. 2863 ,\n S. 1042 ). 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