The US has ratified the UN Convention Against Torture and Degrading or Inhumane Treatment as well as the 1949 Geneva Conventions for Victims of War. But the US has tried to minimize its legal obligations under these parts of international law in its dealing with “unlawful combatants” in places like Guantánamo, Cuba, where the US leases a military base that houses prisoners.

At times, the US has tried to make a unilateral interpretation of the Torture Convention, saying that an interrogator has to almost kill a prisoner to be found guilty of torture. The US has also said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters taken in Afghanistan. These unilateral interpretations are not shared by most other states or by most private international lawyers.

US Army military police escort detainee
at Camp X-Ray, Guantánamo Bay

The result of these US interpretations has been to open the door to prisoner abuse at Guantánamo, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and elsewhere. Some prisoner abuse has been the result of poor training and supervision. Some has been authorized via general legal rulings that are then followed by specific instructions to interrogators and military commanders in the field.