Guantánamo Bay Detention Regime And International Law

Maham Ayaz The detention facility at Guantánamo Bay was established by the United States (U.S.) following the 11 September 2001 attacks and has remained in operation ever since. It remains one of the most contested detention facilities in contemporary international law. The detention facility, as part of the U.S. counterterrorism regime, has sparked ongoing legal debates regarding the relevance of international humanitarian law (IHL), international human rights law (IHRL), and domestic constitutional protections. The facility’s operations serve as an important case study for examining how international law functions when faced with claims of security necessity made by a powerful state. This insight examines the legal foundations of the Guantánamo detention regime, the U.S.’s justifications, and the broader implications for the credibility and enforcement of international law. Following the U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001, approximately 780 detainees captured during counterterrorism operations were transferred to Guantánamo Bay. As of April 2026, 15 detainees remain in custody, while the others have been released. Out of 15, 7 detainees are facing charges for alleged war crimes and are currently in pre-trial proceedings, and 2 have been convicted. In addition, 6 detainees are held in law-of-war detention without charges, of whom 3 have not been recommended for release by the administrative review board, while the remaining 3 have been recommended for transfer to another country, subject to security arrangements. The detainees were categorised as “unlawful enemy combatants” by the Bush administration in 2002. This specific classification was deliberate as it distinguished them from both traditional prisoners of war (POW) and ordinary criminal suspects. This categorisation was controversial because it did not explicitly exist within the legal framework of the Geneva Conventions (GC). Under the GC III, individuals captured in an international armed con