Since January 2002, the US government has held more than 750 detainees in Guantánamo without fair trial or meaningful access to independent courts. Many detainees have been subjected to various forms of torture and abuse, including prolonged incommunicado detention, disappearances, beatings, death threats, painful stress positions, sexual humiliation, forced nudity, exposure to extreme heat and cold, denial of food and water, sensory deprivation such as hooding and blindfolding, sleep deprivation, water-boarding, the use of dogs to inspire fear, and racial and religious insults.