Our agreement was based on considerations of what we would need in terms of ensuring international standards for the treatment of detainees as we were about to begin our deployment to Kandahar. Up until that time, the number of detainees in Canadian custody was minimal, and we, as a government, were familiar with decades of work done by the ICRC.
For my part as an international lawyer, the ICRC, and its specific role outlined in the 2005 agreement, was the ideal and appropriate body to oversee the treatment of prisoners and detainees in Afghan institutions. Over and above, I might add, Mr. Dechert, to ensure this even more, we thought it was important to emphasize in that agreement the role of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. So I was very confident that we had dotted our i's and crossed our t's and had what we needed going into our deployment in Kandahar.