whole or in part, de jure or de facto effective control”.379 Such areas include detention facilities and military bases under US control in places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantánamo Bay, as well as secret detention facilities operated by the CIA on foreign soil. Additionally, the United States’ recent acknowledgment that the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment cannot be derogated from even in times of, and in the context of, an armed conflict is welcome.380 ODIHR further urges the United States to clearly acknowledge that the prohibition applies to all areas over which it exercises “effective control” including, where applicable, detention facilities and military bases outside its sovereign territory. DETENTION AND INTERROGATION PRACTICES IN THE CIA RDI PROGRAMME 214. Reports indicate that, during their apprehension, detainees held as part of the CIA RDI programme were stripped naked, photographed, subjected to body-cavity searches and forced to wear diapers. Prior to their transfer to a CIA detention facility or the custody of a foreign government, detainees were also handcuffed and/or shackled and had their eyes and ears covered.381 Prior to their transfer to Guantánamo, “high-value detainees” were flown to multiple locations, estimated to be between three and ten.382 Their secret detention lasted from 16 months to almost four and a half years.383 215. Individuals detained by the CIA were kept incommunicado, in solitary confinement, and subjected to “varying degrees” of interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration, individually or in combination.384 Some detainees were also subjected to 379 UN CAT, General Comment No. 2, op. cit., note 76, para. 16; UN CAT, Concluding observations on the combined third to fifth periodic reports of the United States of America, op. cit., note 107, para. 10. See, also, UN HRC, General Comment No. 31, op. cit., note 36, para. 10. 380 UN CAT, Third to fifth periodic reports of States parties due in 2011, United States of America, op. cit., note 162, para. 14; “Opening Statement, Mary E. McLeod, Acting Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State, Committee Against Torture, November 12-13, 2014 – Geneva”, op. cit., note 361, pp. 3-4 ; “UN Treaty Body Webcast, CAT 53rd session – United States of America, 3”, op. cit., note 77. 381 ICRC Report, op. cit., note 182, p. 6; CIA - “Extraordinary Rendition” Flights, Torture and Accountability, op. cit., note 180, p. 38. See, also, “Background Paper on CIA’s Combined Use of Interrogation Techniques”, Central Intelligence Agency, 30 December 2004, pp. 2-3, <https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/torturefoia/released/082409/olcremand/2004olc97.pdf>. This is consistent with the findings of the ECtHR, which took note of the standard procedures applied to “high-value detainees” as regards transfers between secret detention facilities, and subsequently found it established beyond reasonable doubt that for the purpose of his transfers in December 2002 and June 2003, Al-Nashiri was “photographed both clothed and naked prior to and again after the transfer; (…) underwent a rectal examination and was made to wear a diaper (…); 3) earphones were placed over his ears, through which loud music was sometimes played; 4) he was blindfolded with at least a cloth tied around the head and black goggles; 5) he was shackled by his hands and feet, (…); 7) during the journey he was not allowed to go to the toilet and, if necessary, was obliged to urinate or defecate into the diaper. (…) [A] strikingly similar account of his transfers in CIA custody was given by the applicant in El-Masri”. The Court also stressed that “CIA documents give a precise description of the treatment to which High Value Detainees were being subjected in custody as a matter of precisely applied and predictable routine, starting from their capture through rendition and reception at the black site, to their interrogations”. See ECtHR, Al Nashiri v. Poland, op. cit., note 172, paras. 409, 437, 512. 382 ICRC Report, ibid., p. 6; ECtHR, Al Nashiri v. Poland, ibid., para. 398. 383 This takes into account the time spent in secret detention by the first 14 “high-value detainees” transferred to Guantánamo in September 2006. ICRC Report, ibid., pp. 3, 7. See, also, ECtHR, Al Nashiri v. Poland, ibid., paras. 397, 401; George W. Bush, “President Discusses the Creation of Military Commissions”, op. cit., note 178; Senate Study on the CIA RDI Programme, Executive Summary, op. cit., note 171, pp. 458-461. 384 ICRC Report, ibid., pp. 7-9; ECtHR, Al Nashiri v. Poland, ibid, paras. 398, 401, 416-417; ECtHR, Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) v. Poland, op. cit., note 172, paras. 418-419, 508; Bradbury, “Memorandum: ‘Application of United States Obligations Under Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture to Certain Techniques That May Be Used in the Interrogation of High Value al Qaeda Detainees’”, op. cit., note 369, p. 5: “To date, the CIA (…) has employed enhanced techniques to varying degrees in the interrogations of 28 of these detainees”. See, also, Senate Study on the CIA RDI Programme, Executive Summary, op. cit., note 90