42 U.S.C. § 2000dd: Prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control of the United States Government

No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose any geographical limitation on the applicability of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment under this section. The provisions of this section shall not be superseded, except by a provision of law enacted after December 30, 2005 , which specifically repeals, modifies, or supersedes the provisions of this section. In this section, the term “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” means the cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment or punishment prohibited by the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as defined in the United States Reservations, Declarations and Understandings to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment done at New York, December 10, 1984 . The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (commonly referred to as the ‘9/11 Commission’) declared that the United States ‘should work with friends to develop mutually agreed-on principles for the detention and humane treatment of captured international terrorists who are not being held under a particular country’s criminal laws’ and recommended that the United States engage its allies ‘to develop a common coalition approach toward the detention and humane treatment of captured terrorists’. A number of investigations remain ongoing by countries that are close United States allies in the war on terrorism regarding the conduct of officials, employees, and agents of the United States and of other countries related to conduct regarding detainees. The Secretary of State has launched an initiative to try to address the differences between the United States and many of its allies regarding the treatment of detainees. It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary, acting through the Legal Adviser of the Department of State, should continue to build on the Secretary’s efforts to engage United States allies to develop a common coalition approach, in compliance with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and other applicable legal principles, toward the detention and humane treatment of individuals detained during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, or in connection with United States counterterrorist operations. The Secretary of State shall keep the appropriate congressional committees fully and currently informed of the progress of any discussions between the United States and its allies regarding the development of the common coalition approach described in subsection (b). Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act [ Aug. 3, 2007 ], the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on any progress towards developing the common coalition approach described in subsection (b). with respect to the House of Representatives, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; and with respect to the Senate, the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Select Committee on Intelligence.”