detainee

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Detainee is a term used by certain governments and their military to refer to individuals held in custody, such as those it does not classify and treat as either prisoners of war or suspects in criminal cases. It is used to refer to "any person captured or otherwise detained by an armed force."^[1] More generally, it is "someone held in custody."^[2]

The word "Detainee" is from the french word : "détenu" and the french verb "détenir". "Détenu" means prisoner in french "prisonnier". In French, a "détenu" is a guilty person, a "prisonnier" is not necessarily a guilty person, for example the prisoners of war or the persons before a judgment.^{[citation needed]}

In wars between nations, detainees are referenced in the Fourth Geneva Convention.

U.S. government's captured enemy combatants

The U.S. military regulates treatment of detainees in the manual Military Police: Enemy Prisoners of War, Retained Personnel, Civilian Internees and Other Detainees, last revised in 1997.

The word came into public awareness during and after the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), as the U.S. detained members of the Taliban and al-Qaeda captured in that war, and determined them to be unlawful combatants. This had generated considerable debate around the globe.^[3] The U.S. government refers to these captured enemy combatants as "detainees" because they did not qualify as prisoners of war under the definition found in the Geneva Conventions.

Juvenile delinquents

It is also used to refer to adolescents who are in police custody, in order to note that they are juveniles (as opposed to being placed formally under arrest).^{[citation needed]}

References

See also

• Civil liberties
• Court system of Canada
• Criminal law in Canada
• Human rights
• Illegal combatant
• Jose Padilla
• Prisoner
• Quasi-criminal
• Summary jurisdiction
• Yaser Esam Hamdi

External links

• Human Rights Watch on Detainees
• ACLU on Detainees

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