Extraordinary rendition, also called irregular rendition, or forced rendition, is the government-sponsored abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another. It is most prominently carried out by the United States government, often with the collusion of other countries: overall, 54 countries are known to have been involved with US extraordinary renditions.
The first known foreign rendition by the US was that of airline hijacker Fawaz Younis who, in September 1987, was abducted after being lured on a yacht in Italy and brought to the U.S. for trial, authorized by President Ronald Reagan. President Bill Clinton authorized extraordinary rendition to nations known to practice torture, called torture by proxy. The administration of President George W. Bush rendered hundreds of so-called illegal combatants for torture by proxy, and to US controlled sites for an extensive torture and interrogation program under the euphemism enhanced interrogation. Extraordinary rendition continued with reduced frequency in the Obama administration: instead of subjecting them to torture, most of those abducted have been conventionally interrogated and subsequently taken to the US for trial.
The United Nations considers one nation abducting the citizens of another a crime against humanity. In July 2014 the European Court of Human Rights condemned the government of Poland for participating in CIA extraordinary rendition, ordering Poland to pay restitution to men who had been abducted, taken to a CIA black site in Poland, and tortured.