ODIHR to believe that the conditions of confinement deteriorated in 2011 and even further in 2013 following a mass hunger strike.424 These allegations call into serious question the conclusions of the Walsh Report and other US statements on the compliance of the conditions of detention with Common Article 3. ODIHR is also troubled by the continued use of solitary confinement and the decision to force-feed detainees on hunger strike as well as the process of doing so. 225. Single-cell confinement at Guantánamo remains the norm for a number of detainees in Camps 5 and 7,425 as confirmed by an official report of November 2012.426 The report specifies that detainees held in isolation in Camp 5 have access to two to four hours of recreation per day with one other detainee, whereas Camp 7 detainees are allowed up to four hours of recreation per day that they would usually spend alone or with another detainee in a separate but adjacent area.427 Segregation of detainees is the default practice in Camp 7, and standard operating procedures have provided for the use of solitary confinement in other camps for periods up to 90 days, depending on the reason for the segregation. To ODIHR’s knowledge, such confinement can be aimed at gathering intelligence, ensuring detainees’ own protection, for security or safety reasons, or for punishing detainees for infringing prison rules.428 226. US officials maintain that single-cell confinement does not amount to solitary confinement, and that the latter is not allowed at Guantánamo.429 However, ODIHR remains concerned Ali Watkins, “Senate Votes to Outlaw Torture”, Huffington Post website, 16 June 2015, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/16/senate-cia-torture_n_7595230.html>. 424 ODIHR interview with Matthew O’Hara, op. cit., note 255; ODIHR interview with Brent Rushforth, op. cit., note 207; United States Military Commission, United States of America v. Khalid Shaikh Mohammad et al., AE 108 (MAH, AAA, RBS, WBA), “Defense motion for appropriate relief to compel defense examination of the accused's conditions of confinement”, 5 December 2012, Attachment G, “Request for changes in [redacted] procedures, Letter from Military Counsel for High Value Detainees”, 10 May 2011, p. 119: “Changes implemented [in Camp 7] since January 2011 have been arbitrary and capricious in that they are not grounded in any institutional need, or on behavioural issues with our clients (…)[and resulted] in unacceptable detention conditions for the prisoners”; “Requests to Improve the Conditions of Confinement in Guantánamo”, Office of the Chief Defense Counsel, 20 May 2013, p. 3, <https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/703318/2013-05-20-joint-letter-tosec-hagel-pii-redacted.pdf>: “There has been a serious degradation in the quality of life for detainees in Guantánamo Bay over the past year. This change appears to have coincided with the arrival of the new Joint Detention Group Commander, [Colonel] John V. Bogdan”. In relation to the deterioration of conditions of confinement in 2013 for non-high value detainees, see the subsection on “Management of hunger strikes and force-feeding at Guantánamo” below. 425 Over the years, a series of facilities have been built and used to hold Guantánamo detainees. Camps 5 and 7 are among the camps which are still in use to date. Camp 5 has been described as “a maximum-security facility consisting of 100 indoor climate-controlled cells divided among four individual cell blocks, each with two tiers, and 24 open-air cells. Most of the cell blocks in Camp 5 are operated as segregated housing. One block currently serves as shared housing (…). Most of the detainees in Camp 5 are held in segregated cells on a temporary basis to encourage compliance with facility rules.” Camp 7 is a “segregated single-cell facility, used for high-value detainees.” “Guantánamo Bay Detainees: Facilities and Factors for Consideration If Detainees Were Brought to the United States”, Government Accountability Office, November 2012 (hereinafter, “GAO November 2012 Report”), pp. 15-16, <http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/650032.pdf>. 426 GAO November 2012 Report, ibid. 427 Ibid., pp. 17-18, 21. Counsel for “high-value detainees” mentioned that until very recently there was no social interaction for detainees in Camp 7. Now, two detainees are taken out in the backyard for one or one and a half hour a day, at the same time. Previously, they spent this time separately. ODIHR interview with Navy Lieutenant Commander Kevin B. Bogucki, JAGC, op. cit., note 255. 428 See, for instance, Buried Alive: Solitary Confinement in the US Detention System (Cambridge: Physicians for Human Rights, 2013), pp. 19-21, <https://s3.amazonaws.com/PHR_Reports/Solitary-Confinement-April-2013-full.pdf>; Department of Defense Directive 2310.01E, op. cit., note 14, para. k. 429 US comments to the draft report; Walsh Report, op. cit., note 422, p. 45. On the other hand, ODIHR was informed that all detainees in Camp 7 are held in solitary confinement. ODIHR interview with Navy Lieutenant Commander Kevin B. Bogucki, JAGC, op. cit., note 255. 96