(D) the African Charter on Human and 
Peoples’ Rights; and 
(E) the American Convention on Human 
Rights. 
(4) The prohibition against torture is also fun-
damental to the laws governing the conduct of par-
ties in armed conflicts, which establish a duty to 
protect the life, health, and safety of civilians and 
other noncombatants, including soldiers who are 
captured or who have laid down their arms, includ-
ing the Geneva Conventions which prohibit ‘‘violence 
of life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, 
mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture’’, ‘‘outrages 
upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating, and 
degrading treatment’’, and the use of force to obtain 
information, stipulating that ‘‘No physical or moral 
coercion shall be exercised against protected persons, 
in particular to obtain information from them or 
from third parties.’’. 
(5) The United States Government informed 
the United Nations in 1999 that in the United 
States, the use of torture ‘‘is categorically denounced 
as a matter of policy and as a tool of state authority 
. . . No official of the government, Federal, State, 
or local, civilian, or military, is authorized to commit
or to instruct anyone else to commit torture. Nor 
may any official condone or tolerate torture in any 
form . . . Every act of torture within the meaning 
of the [Convention against Torture] is illegal under 
existing Federal and State law, and any individual 
who commits such an act is subject to penal sanc-
tions as specified in criminal statutes.’’. 
(6) The practice of torture violates numerous 
provisions of the United States Constitution and its 
Bill of Rights, including the right under the Fourth 
Amendment to be free of unreasonable search or sei-
zure, which encompasses the right to not be abused 
by the police, the right under the Fifth Amendment 
against self-incrimination, which encompasses the 
right to remain silent during interrogations, the 
guarantees of due process under the Fifth and the 
Fourteenth Amendments, which ensure fundamental 
fairness in criminal justice system, and the right 
under the Eighth Amendment to be free of cruel or 
unusual punishment. 
(7) In numerous cases, the United States Su-
preme Court has condemned the use of force 
amounting to torture or other forms of ill treatment 
during interrogations, including such practices as 
whipping, slapping, depriving a prisoner of food,
water, or sleep, keeping a prisoner naked or in a 
small cell for prolonged periods, holding a gun to a 
prisoner’s head, or threatening a prisoner with mob 
violence. 
(8) Article 4 of the Convention against Torture 
obligates State parties to ensure that all acts of tor-
ture are criminal offenses under domestic legislation, 
and the United States has insisted that existing 
Federal and State laws render illegal any act falling 
within the definition of torture under the Convention 
against Torture. 
(9) Article 3 of the Convention against Torture 
expressly prohibits sending a person to another 
State ‘‘where there are substantial grounds for be-
lieving that he would be in danger of being subjected 
to torture.’’. 
(10) Section 2242(a) of the Foreign Affairs Re-
form and Restructuring Act of 1998, as contained in 
Public Law 105–277 (8 U.S.C. 1231 note) states 
that ‘‘It shall be the policy of the United States not 
to expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involun-
tary return of any person to a country in which 
there are substantial grounds for believing the per-
son would be in danger of being subjected to torture,
regardless of whether the person is physically 
present in the United States.’’. 
(11) Transferring, rendering, returning, or ex-
traditing persons in the custody of the United States 
to any other country where torture or cruel, inhu-
man, or degrading treatment is commonly used by 
the government in interrogation and detention is in-
consistent with international human rights law, the 
Constitutional protections against torture or inhu-
man treatment, and the values and principles upon 
which the United States was founded. 
SEC. 2. TRANSFER OF PERSONS IN CUSTODY. 
(a) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—Beginning 6 months 
after the date of the enactment of this Act and every 6 
months thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit to 
the appropriate congressional committees a list of each 
country where torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading 
treatment is commonly used by the government of that 
country in interrogation and detention. 
(b) PROHIBITION ON TRANSFERRING PERSONS.—No 
person in the custody of a United States Government de-
partment, agency, or official may be transferred, rendered, 
or returned to the custody of the government of a country 
included on the most recent list submitted under sub-
section (a) for the purpose of detention, interrogation, or 
trial. 
(c) WAIVERS.— 
(1) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary of State may 
waive the prohibition contained in subsection (b) 
with respect to the government of a country if the 
Secretary certifies to the appropriate congressional 
committees that— 
(A) that government has made significant, 
verifiable progress in eliminating the acts of 
torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treat-
ment that were the basis for the inclusion of 
that country on the list; or 
(B) there is in place a mechanism that 
assures the United States in a verifiable man-
ner that a person transferred, rendered, or re-
turned will not be tortured or subjected to 
cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in that 
country, including, at a minimum, immediate, 
unfettered, and continuing access, from the 
point of return, to each such person by an inde-
pendent humanitarian organization. 
(2) ASSURANCES
INSUFFICIENT.—Written or 
verbal assurances made to the United States by the 
government of a country that persons in its custody
will not be tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman, 
or degrading treatment, are not sufficient to meet 
the requirements of paragraph (1)(B). 
(d) TREATY-BASED EXTRADITION EXEMPTION.— 
The prohibition contained in subsection (b) shall not be 
construed to apply to the legal extradition of a person 
under a bilateral or multilateral extradition treaty if, prior 
to such extradition, that person has recourse to a court 
in the United States of competent jurisdiction to challenge 
the extradition on the basis that there are substantial 
grounds for believing that the person would be in danger 
of being subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrad-
ing treatment in the country requesting such extradition. 
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