E/CN.4/2006/120
page 29
on 31 August 2005 by the Revised Military Commission Order No. 1, Military Commission
Order No. 2 of 21 June 2003 (subsequently revoked), Military Commission Order No. 3
of 5 February 2004 (superseded by Military Commission Order No. 3 of 21 September 2005),
Military Commission Order No. 4 of 30 January 2004 (subsequently revoked), Military
Commission Order No. 5 of 15 March 2004, and Military Commission Order No. 6 of
26 March 2004: reference to the “Military Order” in the text should be read as referring to the
series of Military Commissions Orders.
19
Response of the United States of America dated 21 October 2005, to Inquiry of the UNCHR
Special Rapporteurs dated 8 August 2005, Pertaining to Detainees at Guantánamo Bay, p. 3.
20
See Official Statement of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
dated 21 July 2005 regarding “The relevance of IHL in the context of terrorism” (available at
<http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/terrorism-ihl-210705?OpenDocument>):
“International humanitarian law (the law of armed conflict) recognizes two categories of armed
conflict: international and non-international. International armed conflict involves the use of
armed force by one State against another. Non-international armed conflict involves hostilities
between government armed forces and organized armed groups or between such groups within a
state. When and where the ‘global war on terror’ manifests itself in either of these forms of
armed conflict, international humanitarian law applies, as do aspects of international human
rights and domestic law. For example, the armed hostilities that started in Afghanistan in
October 2001 or in Iraq in March 2003 are armed conflicts. When armed violence is used
outside the context of an armed conflict in the legal sense or when a person suspected of terrorist
activities is not detained in connection with any armed conflict, humanitarian law does not apply.
Instead, domestic laws, as well as international criminal law and human rights govern. […] The
designation ‘global war on terror’ does not extend the applicability of humanitarian law to all
events included in this notion, but only to those which involve armed conflict.”
21
Third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, art. 118, and Fourth
Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Civilian Persons, art. 133 (1).
22
Third Geneva Convention, art. 119 (5), and Fourth Geneva Convention, art. 133.
23
Third Geneva Convention, art. 17 (3), and Fourth Geneva Convention, art. 31.
24
For the circumstances of the arrest and transfer to Guantánamo Bay of the six men see the
decision of the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina of 11 October 2002 in
case No. CH/02/8679 et al., Boudellaa & Others v. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, available at www.hrc.ba. See also the report of Mr. Amir Pilov of
10 August 2004 on his visit to Guantánamo Bay from 26 to 29 July 2004 as official
representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with the respective order of the Human
Rights Chamber.
25
See, Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 446, 124 S.Ct. 2686 (2004).