The US government has variously portrayed the nearly 800 foreign nationals held at Guantánamo Bay as, for example, the “worst of the worst” and “terrorists”. Even children have been among the targets of a US detention policy that has systematically violated international law. Instead of their status as minors being recognized and being treated accordingly, certain younger detainees have been designated as “enemy combatants”, a status, with the legal consequences ascribed to it by the USA, unrecognized in international law.
