The Lexington Principles on the Rights of Detainees
| The Lexington Principles on the Rights of Detainees | |
|---|---|
| Created | April 1, 2009 |
| Location | Lexington, Virginia, United States |
| Author(s) | The Lexington Principles Project, Transnational Law Institute, Washington and Lee University School of Law, Institute for Honor |
| Purpose | Detainee rights, Due process, human rights |
The Lexington Principles on the Rights of Detainees (Lexington Principles) is a body of international due process principles that reflect the prevailing transnational norms in the area of detainee treatment. The Lexington Principles were completed and published on April 1, 2009. The instrument consists of 45 principles and countless annotations prepared by the project's law student editorial board. A primary purpose of the drafters of the Lexington Principles was to assist the jurisprudential evolution of American constitutional due process standards after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Boumediene v. Bush. While each Principle is based on international law, all provisions have been drafted to facilitate vertical norm internalization into the domestic legal system of the United States and other common law countries.
"The mission of the Lexington Principles Project is to engage the international community to clarify and strengthen transnational norms pertaining to due process of law and the treatment of persons detained on suspicion of terrorist activities, and to foster a common approach to these matters, in keeping with the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission on this subject.".
On July 22, 2004, the 9/11 Commission issued its report on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In this report, the Commission made numerous recommendations to U.S. government officials on how to better defend the United States against the spread of international terrorism. In reference to detainee treatment standards, the Commission recommended that:
"(t)he United States should engage its friends to develop a common coalition approach toward the detention and humane treatment of captured terrorists. New principles might draw upon Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions on the law of armed conflict. That article was specifically designed for those cases in which the usual laws of war did not apply. Its minimum standards are generally accepted throughout the world as customary international law.".
The White House responded to the 9-11 Commission's recommendation with the following statement:
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