UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention embarks on fact-finding visit to El Salvador

GENEVA (20 January 2012) – From 23 January to 1 February 2012, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention will undertake its first official mission to El Salvador to assess the situation of deprivation of liberty in the country.

The Working Group will visit various detention facilities including prisons, detention centres, police stations and psychiatric institutions.

The fact-finding mission will provide an opportunity to engage with the relevant authorities at the executive, legislative, judicial and local levels as well as civil society organizations.

Heading the delegation will be Mr. El Hadji Malick Sow, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group (from Senegal) accompanied by Mr. Roberto Garretón (from Chile), Mr. Vladimir Tochilovsky (from Ukraine) and staff from the UN Human Rights office.

A press conference on the preliminary findings of the Working Group will be held on 1 February 2012 at 12:00 noon at Edificio Naciones Unidas, Boulevard Orden de Malta Sur No.2-B, Antiguo Cuscatlán, La Libertad, El Salvador.

The final report of the visit will be presented to the Human Rights Council in 2013.

ENDS

(*) The other two members of the Working Group are Shaheen Sardar Ali who is the Vice-Chair (from Pakistan) and Mads Andenas (from Norway).

The former Commission on Human Rights established the Working Group in 1991 to investigate allegations of arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Its mandate was extended in 1997 to cover the issue of the administrative custody of immigrants and asylum-seekers. The Human Rights Council extended the Working Group’s mandate for a further three-year period by resolution 15/18 on 30 September 2010.

Learn more on the mandate and activities of the Working Group at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Detention/Pages/WGADIndex.aspx

Database of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at: http://www.unwgaddatabase.org/un/

For more information on the Working Group’s visit, please contact Mr. Miguel de la Lama, Secretary of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Tel.+41 79 201 0118/ email: mdelalama@ohchr.org or Jolene Tautakitaki Tel:+41 79 444 4917/ jtautakitaki@ohchr.org)

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts: Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 / xcelaya@ohchr.org)

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