At the end of 2007, the US authorities continued to hold 270 people in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Earlier that year in July, President Bush re-authorized a Central Intelligence Agency programme of secret detention and interrogation.
In the so-called "war on terror", states are resorting to practices long-prohibited by international law. They have sought to justify these practices in the name of national security.
Since 11 September 2001, the US and Europe have openly questioned whether human rights considerations should give way to concerns to protect their populations against attack.
This has resulted in attempts to justify torture and other ill-treatment, and the weakening of due process of law, by holding thousands of suspects indefinitely without charge or trial.
At the end of 2007, there were more than 600 people detained without charge, trial or judicial review of their detentions at the US air base in Bagram, Afghanistan, and 25,000 held by the Multinational Force in Iraq.
Hundreds more are feared to have been unlawfully detained and transferred, usually in secret, to countries where they face further human rights violations.