Trending //
OPCAT RatificationUN Convention Against TortureDetention MonitoringSpecial Rapporteur ReportsNational Preventive MechanismsEnforced DisappearancesThird-Country RemovalsRefoulement
Diplomatic Assurances

Sources

Every source this project relies on, with a link to each, and a statement of what is missing from the list.

Everything asserted in this project comes from something on this page. Each item was opened and read at the address given. Where a source could not be opened, or did not state a detail, that is said rather than guessed at. Nothing is listed here that was not checked.

The primary law

  • Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, article 3(1). The text used here is the text as quoted by the Supreme Court in Munaf v. Geren and by the D.C. Circuit in Omar v. McHugh.
  • Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, section 2242, Pub. L. No. 105-277, 112 Stat. 2681, codified at 8 U.S.C. section 1231 note. Quoted at length in Omar v. McHugh.
  • 8 C.F.R. section 1208.18(c) and 8 C.F.R. section 1208.17(f). Both reproduced in full in Khouzam v. Attorney General.
  • 22 C.F.R. section 95.2, the State Department regulation applied in the extradition context, discussed in Trinidad y Garcia v. Thomas.

The decided cases

  • Khouzam v. Attorney General of the United States, 549 F.3d 235 (3d Cir. 2008), decided December 5, 2008, Nos. 07-2926 and 08-1094. Full text on CourtListener.
  • Munaf v. Geren, 553 U.S. 674 (2008), decided June 12, 2008. Full text on CourtListener.
  • Omar v. McHugh, 646 F.3d 13 (D.C. Cir. 2011), decided June 21, 2011, No. 09-5410. Full text on CourtListener.
  • Trinidad y Garcia v. Thomas, 683 F.3d 952 (9th Cir. 2012) (en banc) (per curiam), decided June 8, 2012, No. 09-56999. Full text on CourtListener. CourtListener captions this record “Hedelito Garcia v. Linda Thomas”; the reporter caption is used on this site.

Three further decisions are relied on by the courts above and are named here so a reader can follow the chain: Kiyemba v. Obama (“Kiyemba II”), 561 F.3d 509 (D.C. Cir. 2009); Mironescu v. Costner, 480 F.3d 664 (4th Cir. 2007); and Cornejo-Barreto v. Seifert, 218 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2000), which the Ninth Circuit overruled in part in Trinidad y Garcia. These are cited as the deciding courts cited them; the Coalition has not read them in full.

Scholarship arguing that assurances can be used

  • Ashley S. Deeks, “Avoiding Transfers to Torture,” Council on Foreign Relations, Council Special Report No. 35 (June 2008). Report page.
  • Ryan Goodman, “Forced Transfer of Detainees with Diplomatic Assurances Against Ill-Treatment,” Just Security (December 16, 2013). Read the post.
  • Aristi Volou, “Are Diplomatic Assurances Adequate Guarantees of Safety Against Torture and Ill-Treatment? The Pragmatic Approach of the Strasbourg Court,” UCL Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, vol. 4, issue 1 (2015). Article page. The repository copy of the PDF would not open; the article page was read instead.

Scholarship arguing that they cannot

  • Gregor Noll, “Diplomatic Assurances and the Silence of Human Rights Law,” Melbourne Journal of International Law, vol. 7 (2006). Full text, PDF.
  • Başak Çalı, Cathryn Costello and Stewart Cunningham, “Hard Protection through Soft Courts? Non-Refoulement before the United Nations Treaty Bodies,” German Law Journal, vol. 21, pp. 355 to 384 (2020). Full text, PDF.
  • Margit Ammer and Andrea Schuechner, “Article 3: Principle of Non-Refoulement,” in Nowak, Birk and Monina (eds), The United Nations Convention Against Torture and its Optional Protocol: A Commentary (2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2019). Chapter page.
  • Brenna D. Nelinson, “From Boumediene to Garcia: The United States’ (Non)Compliance with the United Nations Convention Against Torture and its Movement Away From Meaningful Review,” American University International Law Review, vol. 29, issue 1, pp. 209 to 253 (2013). Full text, PDF.

On the safeguards a credible practice would need

  • Naureen Shah, Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, “Promises to Keep: Diplomatic Assurances Against Torture in US Terrorism Transfers” (2010). Report page.
  • Steve Vladeck, “Diplomatic Assurances, Torture, and Judicial Review: The Bimenyimana Appeal,” Just Security (March 27, 2015). Read the post.

On the current removal program

  • Scott Roehm and Rebecca Ingber, “In Congress, a Welcome, and Well-Executed, Next Step to Stop Trump’s Transfers to Torture,” Just Security (August 8, 2025). Read the post.
  • Megan E. Elman-Welch, “Deportations to Perilous Places: Protecting Against Third Country Removal in Immigration Court,” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, vol. 40, p. 383 (2026). Full text, PDF.
  • Matthew Boaz, “Due Process in Third Country Removals,” Lawfare (December 1, 2025). Read the article.

What is missing from this list

Two gaps are worth stating, because a reader is entitled to know the limits of what has been gathered. No law review case note on Khouzam was found, and none has been invented to fill the space. No article addressing 8 C.F.R. section 1208.18(c) on its own terms was found either; the regulation is treated here through the courts that have construed it and through the writers who discuss it in passing.

If you know of a source that belongs on this page, or an error in what is here, the Coalition wants to hear it. Corrections are made with the correction shown rather than silently.