Camp Iguana

Camp Iguana is a small compound in the detention camp complex on the US Naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Camp Iguana originally held three child detainees, who camp spokesmen then claimed were the only detainees under age 16 (the age at which DOD defined minors). It was closed in the winter of 2004 when the three were sent back to their native countries.

When the Department of Defense was forced in 2005 by US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff's court order to release the identities of all the detainees, DOD acknowledged it had detained up to twenty minors (under the age of 18, the international coming of age) in the adult portion of the prison.

In 2005 Camp Iguana was re-opened to hold some of the 38 detainees classified in Combatant Status Review Tribunals as " no longer enemy combatants." These included several Uyghurs, who could not return to China because of the high risk of persecution there. They were subject to delays in resettlement as diplomatic efforts tried to place them in countries other than their country of origin or the United States.

Used for juvenile detainees

Beginning in 2002, the US used Camp Iguana for juvenile detainees. Elaine Chao, then the U.S. Secretary of Labor has spoken about the responsibility to give child soldiers special treatment, to provide help for them to re-integrate into society."Children in the Crossfire: Prevention and Rehabilitation of Child Soldiers"
, Speech delivered by Elaine Chao, US Secretary of Labor on 7 May 2003

If the Americans had applied the Geneva Conventions at the battlefield, its forces would have reviewed detainees more closely in Afghanistan and other areas of capture. The Geneva Conventions entitle persons captured during warfare to a "prompt, open tribunal" for a fair determination of their status—whether they should be considered civilians, POWs, or enemy combatants. Critics have said a more thorough review at the beginning would have meant the juveniles would never have been transported from Afghanistan.

The executive branch of the United States government claimed at the time that enemy combatants were beyond the jurisdiction of the US courts. The United States Supreme Court overruled executive efforts to keep the enemy combatants outside the US judicial system; in decisions in 2004, it ruled that both American and foreign detainees had the right to challenge their detentions before an impartial tribunal. The executive branch established Combatant Status Review Tribunals in 2004 to evaluate whether detainees were enemy combatants.

In a BBC
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