I 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4448
To require the President to seek the establishment of an international commis-
sion for monitoring the treatment of persons in United States custody 
in Iraq. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 20, 2004
Ms. LEE (for herself, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. LEACH, and Mr. CROWLEY) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Inter-
national Relations 
A BILL 
To require the President to seek the establishment of an 
international commission for monitoring the treatment 
of persons in United States custody in Iraq.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Commis-
sion To Monitor United States-Held Prisoners in Iraq Act 
of 2004’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Serious allegations have been raised and 
substantial evidence exists that physical and sexual 
abuse have taken place within Abu Ghraib Prison 
and potentially other facilities under the manage-
ment of the United States Armed Forces or intel-
ligence services in Iraq. 
(2) In the Convention Relative to the Treat-
ment of Prisoners of War, signed at Geneva on Au-
gust 12, 1949 (referred to as the ‘‘Third Geneva 
Convention’’), the international community has pre-
scribed rules concerning the treatment of prisoners 
of war. 
(3) The United States, along with more than 
190 other countries, is a party to the Geneva Con-
ventions of 1949 and abiding by the terms of those 
conventions is very much in the national security in-
terests of the United States. 
(4) The Third Geneva Convention prohibits in-
humane treatment of prisoners of war, acts of vio-
lence and insults against them, and the infliction of 
physical or mental torture, or any other form of co-
ercion, on such prisoners. 
(5) A report, the ‘‘Article 15–6 Investigation of 
the 800th Military Police Brigade’’, prepared by 
Major General Antonio M. Taguba, Deputy Com-
manding General Support, Coalition Forces Land 
Component Command, which has been made public 
in the national media, reads in part, ‘‘That between 
October and December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib 
Confinement Facility (BCCF), numerous incidents 
of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were 
inflicted on several detainees.’’. 
(6) This report also describes the ‘‘systemic and 
illegal abuse of detainees’’. 
(7) According to congressional testimony, the 
International Committee of the Red Cross provided 
a number of warnings to Coalition forces regarding 
conditions in certain Iraqi prisons and provided a 
written report to Coalition headquarters personnel in 
November 2003 that similar abuses were occurring 
at the Abu Ghraib facility. 
(8) The Wall Street Journal has published the 
February 2004 ‘‘Report of the International Com-
mittee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the Treatment 
by the Coalition Forces of Prisoners of War and 
other Protected Persons by the Geneva Conventions 
in Iraq during Arrest, Internment, and Interroga-
tion’’, detailing complaints of the mistreatment of 
Iraqi prisoners in United States custody which was 
sent to United States officials.
(9) The International Committee of the Red 
Cross asserted at a recent press conference that it 
had repeatedly expressed written and verbal con-
cerns regarding the widespread mistreatment of 
prisoners, including in meetings at the highest level 
of the Coalition Provisional Authority. 
(10) The February 2004 report of the Inter-
national Committee of the Red Cross detailed viola-
tions including ‘‘Brutality against protected persons 
upon capture and initial custody, sometimes causing 
death or serious injury . . . Physical or psychological 
coercion during interrogation to secure information 
. . . [and] Excessive and disproportionate use of 
force against persons deprived of their liberty result-
ing in death or injury during their period of intern-
ment.’’. 
(11) The International Committee of the Red 
Cross also found that ‘‘[arresting authorities] rarely 
informed the arrestee or his family where he was 
being taken and for how long, resulting in the de 
facto ‘disappearance’ of the arrestee for weeks or 
even months until contact was finally made.’’. 
(12) Congress has the utmost confidence that 
such abuses do not typify the behavior of the vast 
majority of the tens of thousands of United States
Armed Forces personnel and allies in Operation 
Iraqi Freedom. 
(13) The evidence of abuse documented by pho-
tographic and videographic images released in the 
media has aroused international outcry, damaged 
United States relations with other countries, and po-
tentially added to the dangers faced by United 
States military personnel or civilians who may be 
captured by adversaries. 
(14) Congress was not fully informed of the ex-
istence, seriousness, or investigation of those abuses 
until after the abuses had been disclosed in the na-
tional media. 
(15) House Concurrent Resolution 118, which 
was passed by the House of Representatives on 
March 27, 2003, by a vote of 419–0, resolved that 
the Congress demanded ‘‘that Iraqi authorities com-
ply fully and immediately with its obligations and re-
sponsibilities of the Convention Relative to the 
Treatment of Prisoners of War’’, condemned ‘‘the 
failure of Iraqi authorities to treat prisoners of war 
in strict conformity with that Convention’’, and 
joined ‘‘the President in warning all Iraqi authorities 
that any individual who mistreats any prisoner of 
war in violation of that Convention shall be consid-
ered a war criminal and prosecuted as such to the 
full extent of United States and international law’’. 
(16) Greater oversight and transparency in the 
management of United States-run prisons in Iraq is 
clearly needed. 
(17) The United States must take immediate 
and concrete steps to build confidence among Iraqis 
in our actions and motives. 
(18) It is imperative that the Iraqi people be 
given a greater role in the operation of the prison 
system in their country. 
(19) Greater international cooperation and as-
sistance in the management of the Iraqi prisons 
would provide greater reassurance to the Iraqi peo-
ple and the international community that the United 
States is abiding by the Geneva Conventions of 
1949. 
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION 
FOR MONITORING TREATMENT OF PERSONS 
IN UNITED STATES CUSTODY IN IRAQ. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The President shall seek to 
establish an international commission for monitoring the 
treatment of persons in United States custody in Iraq. 
(b) SCOPE OF DUTIES.—It is the sense of Congress 
that the international commission referred to in subsection
(a) should monitor the treatment of persons in United 
States custody in Iraq so as to ensure compliance with 
the terms of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and other 
relevant international instruments and to provide assur-
ances to the people of Iraq and the international commu-
nity that the treatment of such persons is in accordance 
with international law. 
(c) MEMBERSHIP.—It is the sense of Congress that 
the international commission referred to in subsection (a) 
should include representatives from—
(1) the interim or transitional government in 
Iraq; 
(2) Iraqi civil society; 
(3) the International Committee of the Red 
Cross; 
(4) the International Federation of Red Cross 
and Red Crescent Societies; 
(5) the United Nations; and 
(6) the United States Armed Forces and Coali-
tion forces.
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