to pressure detainees to put an end to their protest.470 For these reasons, ODIHR believes that the force-feeding of mentally competent Guantánamo detainees on hunger strike amounts to ill-treatment.471 As noted by the Special Rapporteur on torture, US authorities have a duty to look for solutions other than force-feeding, including discussing detainees’ grievances in good faith.472 236. ODIHR regrets not having been granted access to interview in private current detainees who have been force-fed under the current procedure or medical personnel carrying out the force-feedings. It therefore urges the US government to disclose the videotape recordings of Dhiab’s forcible cell extractions and subsequent force-feedings to the public in an effort to be more transparent and testify to the accuracy or inaccuracy of the allegations mentioned above.473 Should these allegations be accurate, the force-feeding process in itself would inflict severe pain and suffering to the detainees and therefore amount to cruel and inhuman treatment and potentially to torture. Moreover, ODIHR wishes to reiterate that the use of force should always remain proportionate and that, in itself, the use of restraint chairs has been condemned by international bodies as “inherently inhuman, degrading or painful”.474 INVOLVEMENT OF MEDICAL STAFF IN THE TREATMENT OF DETAINEES 237. Some of the legal memoranda drafted by the Department of Justice under the Bush administration, in particular those addressed to the CIA, indicate the involvement of medical and psychological personnel in interrogations, referring, for instance, to the “need for [their] close and ongoing monitoring (…) and active intervention if necessary” and to the fact that a “Survival, Evasion, Resistance [and] Escape (‘SERE’) training psychologist [had] been involved with the interrogations since they began”.475 The Senate Study on the 470 “Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers”, World Medical Association, op. cit., note 315, para. 13. See, also, UN CAT, Concluding observations on the combined third to fifth periodic reports of the United States of America, op. cit., note 107, para. 14. 472 “Statement of the UN Special Rapporteur on torture at the Expert Meeting on the situation of detainees held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay – Inter-American Commission on Human Rights”, OHCHR website, op. cit., note 108. See, also, ODIHR interview with Physicians for Human Rights, 26 February 2014. 473 On October 3, 2014, a district judge ordered the Obama administration to prepare for public release the redacted video footage of Dhiab being forcibly extracted of his cell and force-fed. The decision came following the intervention in the litigation of 16 major US media organizations to unseal the approximately 30 videotapes that had been entered into the record. The government appealed the ruling. In July 2015, the district judge ordered the Obama administration to complete the redaction process of the first eight videos by 31 August 2015. Reportedly, all parties are to return to the court in mid-October to review the tapes. The Obama administration is said to have filed a motion for reconsideration of the judge’s order. See, for example, “Judge orders release of Guantánamo force-feeding footage”, Reprieve website, 3 October 2014, <http://www.reprieve.org/judge-orders-forcefeeding-tapes-released.html>; “Judge orders US government to prepare Guantánamo force-feeding tapes for public release”, Reprieve website, 10 July 2015, <http://www.reprieve.org/judge-orders-us-government-to-prepare-guantanamo-force-feedingvideos-for-release.html>; “Judge Orders Pentagon to Get Guantanamo Force-Feeding Videos Ready for Release”, The Intercept website, 11 July 2015, <https://theintercept.com/2015/07/10/judge-orders-pentagon-get-guantanamo-force-feeding-videos-readyrelease/>; “Obama administration moves to block release of Guantanamo force feeding tapes”, Reprieve website, 23 July 2015, <http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/obama-administration-moves-to-block-release-of-guantanamo-force-feeding-tapes/>. 474 UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Interim report to the General Assembly, A/68/295, op. cit., note 304, para. 58. See, also, UN CAT, Report of the Committee against Torture, Twenty third session, Twenty fourth session, A/55/44, op. cit., note 304, para. 180(c). 475 Bradbury, “Memorandum: ‘Application of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340-2340A to the Combined Use of Certain Techniques in the Interrogation of High Value al Qaeda Detainees’”, No. 12, op. cit., note 371, p. 11; Bybee, “Memorandum: ‘Interrogation of Al Qaeda Operative’”, op. cit., note 344, p. 1. See, also, Bradbury, “Memorandum: ‘Application of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2340-2340A to Certain Techniques That May Be Used in the Interrogation of a High Value al Qaeda Detainee’”, No. 13, op. cit., note 371, p. 4: 471 102