Chapter 3 Conditions of Detention | 39 CONDITIONS OF DETENTION 63. 64. One of the mandates of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, fulfilled with the support of its Rapporteurship on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty, is to monitor conditions of confinement in detention facilities throughout the hemisphere. As part of this mandate, the IACHR has closely followed the conditions of detention at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay. In 2005, the Commission extended the scope of precautionary measures 259-02 to request the United States to investigate, prosecute and punish all instances of torture and other ill-treatment that could have been perpetrated at Guantanamo. Since then, the IACHR has monitored the situation through the precautionary measures, public hearings and working meetings. This chapter will focus first on the evolution of the legal status of prisoners at Guantanamo and the changes in the position of the U.S. Government since 2009. It will also address how inter-American human rights standards should be applied in times of armed conflict, in particular how any deprivation of liberty should be conducted in the context of armed conflicts. The chapter will then address the major issues surrounding the detainees’ right to personal integrity, in particular the authorized use of torture in interrogations during the early years of the Guantanamo detentions and the role and responsibility of health professionals who participated or condoned those acts. Further, the IACHR will identify some other areas of concern such as prison conditions at Camp 7, problems in the provision of health care adapted to the needs of the detainees, and religious and cultural competence issues. Finally, this chapter will assess how the U.S. Government has dealt with the hunger strikes, which have become the main form of protest at Guantanamo, in light of the State’s obligations vis-à-vis persons deprived of liberty. A. Right to personal liberty and indefinite detention 65. The right to personal liberty and security and to be free from arbitrary arrest is provided for in Articles I and XXV of the American Declaration as follows: Article I. Every human being has the right to life, liberty and the security of his person. Article XXV. No person may be deprived of liberty except in the cases and according to the procedures established by pre-existing law. No person may be deprived of liberty for nonfulfillment of obligations of a purely civil character. Every individual who has been deprived of his liberty has the right to have the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR