26 | Towards the Closure of Guantanamo 27. 28. 29. 30. 17 requirement that the Government provide a definition of that status for each person held. In a second stage, the Commission requested the United States to investigate and punish all instances of torture and other ill-treatment. Finally, given the failure of the State to comply with the precautionary measures, the IACHR requested, among other steps, that the detention facility be immediately closed. On February 25, 2002, the IACHR received a request for precautionary measures in favor of the 254 detainees who were being held at Guantanamo at that time. The request indicated that these detainees were transported by the United States to Guantanamo Bay beginning on or about January 11, 2002 following their capture in Afghanistan in connection with a military operation led by the United States against the former Taliban regime in that country and against Al Qaeda. The request claimed that the detainees at Guantanamo Bay were at risk of irreparable harm because the United States refused to treat them as prisoners of war until a competent tribunal determined otherwise in accordance with the Third Geneva Convention of 1949. The request also alleged that the detainees had been held arbitrarily, incommunicado, and for a prolonged period; and that they had been interrogated without access to legal counsel. Further, according to the request, certain detainees were at risk of trial and possible death sentences before military commissions that failed to comply with established principles of international law. On March 12, 2002, the IACHR granted precautionary measures requesting that the United States take the “urgent measures necessary to have the legal status of the detainees determined by a competent tribunal.” 17 The Commission considered that, without this determination, the fundamental and non-derogable rights of the detainees might not be recognized and guaranteed by the United States. As indicated above, in the course of monitoring these measures, the Inter-American Commission extended the scope of the precautionary measures on two subsequent occasions. On October 28, 2005, the IACHR required the United States to thoroughly and impartially investigate and to prosecute and punish all instances of torture and other ill-treatment that could have been perpetrated against detainees at Guantanamo. It also requested that the United States fully respect the nonrefoulement principle, which prohibits the transfer and deportation of individuals to countries where they may run the risk of being tortured, and indicated that diplomatic assurances should not be used to avoid this obligation. Following the hunger strike initiated in February 2013 by various detainees to protest their state of indefinite detention, and taking into account the allegations of widespread abuse and mistreatment and the failure of the United States to comply with the precautionary measures, on July 23, 2013 the Inter-American Commission decided to extend once again, this time on its own initiative, the scope of the measures. The IACHR requested that the Government of the United States proceed IACHR, Precautionary Measure 259/02 – Detainees held by the United States in Guantanamo Bay, March 12, 2002. Organization of American States | OAS