and Fourth Geneva Conventions.743 Prohibited grounds of discrimination include “race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or on any other similar criteria”.744 This is a norm of customary international humanitarian law applicable in both international and noninternational armed conflicts.745 b. Domestic Standards 325. Upon ratification of the ICCPR, the United States specified that its Constitution and laws safeguard the principle of equal protection of the law and provide “extensive protections against discrimination”.746 These equal protection principles are embedded in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution.747 The applicability of these constitutional principles to the military commissions at Guantánamo has not been definitively determined or ruled upon by domestic courts. 326. This understanding to the ICCPR also stipulates that the United States “understands distinctions based upon race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or any other status - as those terms are used in Article 2, paragraph 1 and Article 26 - to be permitted when such distinctions are, at minimum, rationally related to a legitimate governmental objective.”748 In this regard, the Human Rights Committee noted its satisfaction that the “principle of non-discrimination is construed by the Government as not permitting distinctions which would not be legitimate under the Covenant”.749 327. Pursuant to the MCA 2009, only non-US citizens can be tried before the military commissions at Guantánamo.750 c. Findings and Analysis 328. The military commissions are a separate system of justice expressly designed to prosecute only certain non-citizens. A US citizen charged with identical acts could only be prosecuted before ordinary courts. Jose Padilla and John Walker Lindh, two US citizens detained and labelled as enemy combatants, were, for example, tried before federal courts.751 743 Third Geneva Convention, Art. 16; Fourth Geneva Convention, Art. 13. Common Article 3(1). Article 75(1) of API also refers explicitly to distinctions based upon national origin or other status. Articles 16 and 13 of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, respectively, also refer to adverse distinctions based on nationality. 745 “Customary IHL, Rule 88: Non-Discrimination”, ICRC website, <https://www.icrc.org/customaryihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule88>: “Adverse distinction in the application of international humanitarian law based on race, colour, sex, language, religion or belief, political or other opinion, national or social origin, wealth, birth or other status, or on any other similar criteria is prohibited”. 746 US reservations to the ICCPR, op. cit., note 327, para. II(1). 747 The Fourteenth Amendment however relates to state action, and is therefore not addressed in this report. 748 US reservations to the ICCPR, op. cit., note 327, para. II(1). 749 UN HRC, Concluding observations, United States of America, CCPR/C/79/Add.50, op. cit., note 328, para. 275. 750 MCA 2009, § 948a(1); MCA 2009, § 948c. 751 Jose Padilla was convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim individuals in a foreign country, conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism, and providing material support to terrorists. United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, United States of America v. Jose Padilla, Case No. 04-600001-CR-COOKE, “Amended Judgment”, 9 September 2014, <http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/2474.pdf>;“Jose Padilla Re-Sentenced to 21 744 142