16 | Towards the Closure of Guantanamo 5. 6. B. international instruments that require domestic laws and regulations to conform with international commitments.” The IACHR further referred to the debate over the adoption of anti-terrorist initiatives that included military commissions and other measures. Also as a response to the terrorist attacks, on June 3, 2002, the OAS General Assembly adopted the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism, in which OAS Member States reaffirmed the “need to adopt effective steps in the inter-American system to prevent, punish and eliminate terrorism through the broadest cooperation.” The Convention explicitly recognized the requirement that antiterrorist initiatives must be undertaken in full compliance with member states’ existing obligations under international law, including international human rights law. As a follow up to its resolution, in 2002 the IACHR issued a Report on Terrorism and Human Rights elaborating upon the manner in which international human rights requirements regulate state conduct in responding to terrorist threats. 2 In this report, the IACHR examined counter-terrorism initiatives in relation to several core international human rights. It addressed the minimum requirements of international human rights and humanitarian law in respect of those rights and evaluated the manner in which these requirements may impact upon a variety of anti-terrorism practices. Methodology 7. As part of the preparation of this report, the Inter-American Commission organized an expert meeting on the situation of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay to receive specialized input on the different areas covered by the report. The meeting was attended by eleven experts from different backgrounds. The participants included Clifford M. Sloan, at the time Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure at the U.S. Department of State, officials in the Office of the Chief Prosecutor and the Office of the Chief Defense Counsel for the Military Commissions, habeas counsel representing Guantanamo detainees before federal courts, a psychiatric and medical expert in numerous cases involving detainees at Guantanamo, civil society organizations, scholars, as well as members of the office of the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 3 The information gathered in this high profile meeting enabled the 2 IACHR, Report on Terrorism and Human Rights, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.116.Doc.5 rev.1, October 22, 2002. Available at: http://www.cidh.org/Terrorism/Eng/toc.htm The expert meeting took place at the IACHR’s headquarters in Washington D.C. on October 3, 2013. The participants included Prof. David D. Cole (Professor of constitutional law, national security and criminal justice at Georgetown University Law Center), J. Wells Dixon (senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and representative of Guantanamo detainees in federal courts and before military commissions), Prof. Marc Falkoff (Associate Professor of criminal law at Northern Illinois University College of Law and principal lawyer in the habeas representation of seventeen Guantanamo prisoners), Prof. Jonathan Hafetz (Associate Continues… 3 Organization of American States | OAS