Stakeholders consultation on remedies and procedures on the right to challenge the lawfulness of detention before court

On 1 and 2 September 2014, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention convened a global stakeholders consultation in relation to the preparation of the first draft Principles and Guidelines on remedies and procedures on the right of anyone deprived of his or her liberty by arrest or detention to bring proceedings before court in order to challenge the lawfulness of his or her detention, pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 20/16 of 6 July 2012.

This global consultation, which took place in Geneva, brought together representatives of over 25 States from around the world as well as experts from international and regional governmental and non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions. It provided a forum to exchange experiences, practices and lessons learnt on the gaps and best practices on guaranteeing the right to challenge the lawfulness of detention before court. It also provided an opportunity to engage in deeper discussions on the content of the preliminary draft principles and provide suggestions and recommendations.

The draft Principles and Guidelines are intended to provide States with a useful tool to implement their substantive and procedural obligations, as based on existing international human rights law and standards, to ensure the right to court review may be availed of in practice and to elaborate specific factors to be taken into account when this right is applied to all persons in all situations of deprivation of liberty. In this way, the Principles and Guidelines will assist States in the formulation, adoption and implementation of normative frameworks and policies that will provide all detained persons with improved access to a fair judicial process, and will provide adequate and appropriate remedies. The Working Group will present its draft Principles and Guidelines to the Human Rights Council in September 2015.

Documentation

• Human Rights Council resolution
• Concept note
• List of participants as of 1 September 2014
• Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: A compilation of national, regional and international laws, regulations and practices on the right to challenge the lawfulness of detention before court 
• Background paper: Overview of State practice (including Preliminary Draft Principles in section VI).
• Programme Information (Programme of Work, Content of Panels and Rules of Procedure)

Presentations

Opening Ceremony

• Mr. Bacre Ndiaye, Director, Human Rights Council and Special Procedures division, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Her Excellency Ambassador Karen Pierce, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva

Panel 1: Framework, Scope and Content of the right to court review of detention

• Sir Nigel Rodley, Chairperson of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and Professor of Law and Chair of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex
• Mr. Manfred Nowak, Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights of the University of Vienna and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture
• Mr. Matthew Pollard, Senior Legal Advisor and United Nations Representative at the International Commission of Jurists

Panel 2: Procedural Guarantees necessary to exercise the right to court review of detention

• Mr. Malcolm Evans, Chairperson of the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Professor of Public International Law and Deputy Director of the Human Rights Implementation Centre at the University of Bristol.
• Mr. Gerald L. Neuman, Member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and Rapporteur for draft general comment on Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law at Harvard Law School

Panel 3: Criminal Detention

• Ms. Leila Zerroügui, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict and former Chair Rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
• Mr. Vitit Muntarbhorn, Commissioner of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and Professor of law at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok

Panel 4: Migration-related Detention

• Ms. Gillian Triggs, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission
• Ms. Alice Edwards, Head of Legal Section, Division of International Protection at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
• Mr. Michael Flynn, Founder and Coordinator of the Global Detention Project based at the Global Migration Center of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva

Panel 5: Preventive and Protective Detention

• Mr. Hans Draminsky Petersen, Member of the United Nations Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture and  medical consultant for the Rehabilitation and Research Center for Torture Victims in Copenhagen (RCT)
• Mr. George Tugushi, Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations Committee against Torture and former Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia
• Mr. Facundo Chávez Penillas, Advisor on Human Rights and Disability, UnitedNations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Panel 6: Detention in Armed Conflict, States of emergency or for Counterterrorism purposes

• Mr. Gerald L. Neuman, Member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and Rapporteur for Draft General Comment on Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law at Harvard Law School
• Ms. Shaheen Ali, Professor of Law at Warwick University and former Vice-Chair of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
• Mr. Alex Conte, Director of International Law and Protection Programmes at the International Commission of Jurists

Stakeholder Statements and Submissions

*All responses to the Working Group’s questionnaire on the right to court review may be found here

• Autistic Minority International
  1-2
• Centre fédéral Migration et du Centre interfédéral pour l’égalité des chances et la lutte contre le racisme et les discriminations
• Defensoria del Pueblo de Colombia
• Danish Institute for Human Rights
  1-2
• Government of Australia
• Government of El Salvador
• International-Lawyers.Org
• Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights
• Penal Reform International
• Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)
• The Center for Legal and Social Studies
  1 (En-Sp) 2 (En-Sp)
• World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry
• World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)