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42 U.S.C. § 2000dd

Prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control of the United States Government

United States · Title 42 — THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE · Status: effective

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42 U.S.C. § 2000dd, Prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control of the United States Government, United States, version 1 as recorded 2026-07-09, yourstate.us, https://yourstate.us/provision/478329
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No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose any geographical limitation on the applicability of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment under this section. The provisions of this section shall not be superseded, except by a provision of law enacted after December 30, 2005, which specifically repeals, modifies, or supersedes the provisions of this section. In this section, the term “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” means the cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment or punishment prohibited by the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as defined in the United States Reservations, Declarations and Understandings to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment done at New York, December 10, 1984.

Legislative history

The public laws that enacted or amended this section. Tallies are for the whole bill as it passed each chamber — often an omnibus covering far more than this provision — not a vote on this section alone.

  • Enacted byPub. L. 109-148(H.R. 2863)2005-12-30
    Department of Defense, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations to Address Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pandemic Influenza Act, 2006
  • Amended byPub. L. 109-163(H.R. 1815)2006-01-06
    National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006
    House: 374–41Senate: no recorded tally