A/HRC/13/42* page 3 degrading treatment or punishment, and may in itself constitute such treatment. The suffering caused to family members of a secretly detained (namely, disappeared) person may also amount to torture or other form of ill-treatment, and at the same time violates the right to the protection of family life. It is not only States whose authorities keep the detainee in secret custody that are internationally responsible for violations of international human rights law. The practice of “proxy detention”, involving the transfer of a detainee from one State to another outside the realm of any international or national legal procedure (“rendition” or “extraordinary rendition”), often in disregard of the principle of non-refoulement, also involves the responsibility of the State at whose behest the detention takes place. The Geneva Conventions, applicable to all armed conflicts, also prohibit secret detention under any circumstances. The study also provides an historical overview of the use of secret detention. Secret detention in the context of counter-terrorism is not a new phenomenon. From the Nazi regime, with its Nacht und Nebel Erlaß (the night and fog decree), to the former Soviet Union and its Gulag system of forced-labour camps, States have often resorted to secret detention to silence opposition. Striking similarities can be identified in the security measures of the 1970s and 1980s used in Latin American countries and, in the past century, in other regions, such as Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The methods used then as now consist in, inter alia, broad emergency laws, the enhanced role of military and special courts, the practice of torture and/or ill-treatment, kidnappings (renditions), enforced disappearances and, notably, secret detention. The aim is always the same: to have a deterrent effect, to ensure that detainees would vanish without a trace, and that no information would be given with regard to their whereabouts or fate. The study then addresses the use of secret detention in the context of the so-called “global war on terror” in the post-11 September 2001 period. In this chapter, the experts describe the progressive and determined elaboration of a comprehensive and coordinated system of secret detention of persons suspected of terrorism, involving not only the authorities of the United States of America, but also of other States in almost all regions of the world. Following a description of the legal and policy decisions taken by the United States authorities, the experts give an overview of the secret detention facilities held by them. The report then enumerates proxy detention sites and related practices of extraordinary rendition. Various United Nations bodies have in the past heavily criticized the policy of extraordinary rendition in a detailed way, dismissing it as a clear violation of international law. They have also expressed concern about the use of diplomatic assurances. The experts also address the level of involvement and complicity of a number of countries. For purposes of the study, they provide that a State is complicit in the secret detention of a person when it (a) has asked another State to secretly detain a person; (b) knowingly takes advantage of the situation of secret detention by sending questions to the State detaining the person, or solicits or receives information from persons kept in secret detention; (c) has actively participated in the arrest and/or transfer of a person when it knew, or ought to have known, that the person would disappear in a secret detention facility, or otherwise be detained outside the