E/CN.4/2006/120 page 14 referred to a military commission. The vast majority of the Guantánamo detainees have not been charged with an offence after several years of detention.44 As they continue to be detained, the detainees’ right to be tried without undue delay is being violated. 39. Concerning the right to a public hearing, the Military Order authorizes the court, for unspecified “national security” reasons, to conduct trials in secret. 40. Finally, the decisions of the military commissions were previously only reviewable by a panel appointed by the Secretary of Defense, with a final review being available to the President of the United States. The Detainee Treatment Act of December 2005 has given the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia jurisdiction to determine the validity of any final decision rendered by a military commission. However, the scope of such review is very limited. The right to an appeal before an independent tribunal, enshrined in article 14 (5) of ICCPR, is consequently also severely restricted. III. TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT 41. The right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is explicitly affirmed in article 7 of ICCPR. The Convention against Torture defines torture, and details measures to be taken by States parties to prevent acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 42. Article 2 (2) of the Convention states that: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.” The right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is a non-derogable right, and therefore no exceptional circumstances may be invoked to justify derogation. The Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture have consistently emphasized the absolute character of the prohibition of torture and underlined that this prohibition cannot be derogated from in any circumstances, even in war or while fighting terrorism.45 43. The prohibition of torture and “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment” is also contained in common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, to which the United States is a party. Moreover, the prohibition of torture is part of jus cogens. Torture and other inhumane acts causing severe pain or suffering, or serious injury to the body or to mental or physical health are also prohibited under international criminal law and in certain instances can amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.46 44. The prohibition of torture provided by the relevant international standards, in particular the Convention against Torture, also encompasses the principle of non-refoulement (art. 3), the obligation to investigate alleged violations promptly and bring perpetrators to justice, the prohibition of incommunicado detention, and the prohibition of the use of evidence obtained under torture in legal proceedings. 45. In view of the foregoing, the United States has the obligation to fully respect the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. The Special Rapporteur on torture notes the reservations