Arbitrary Detention: UN expert group launches first information-gathering visit to Brazil

GENEVA (15 March 2013) – The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention will undertake its first official visit to Brazil to assess the situation of deprivation of liberty in the country from 18 to 28 March 2013.

The group of independent experts designated by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate allegations of arbitrary deprivation of liberty will visit various detention facilities, including prisons, police stations, detention centres for migrants and psychiatric institutions.

The Working Group will be visiting Campo Grande, Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, in addition to Brasilia. The visit will provide an opportunity to engage with the relevant authorities from the executive, legislative, judicial organs at the federal and state levels as well as civil society organizations.

The delegation will consist of Mr. Roberto Garretón (from Chile) and Mr. Vladimir Tochilovsky (from Ukraine)*. They will be accompanied by staff from the Working Group’s Secretariat at the UN human rights office.

A press conference on the preliminary observations of the Working Group will be held on 28 March 2013 at the Sergio Viera de Mello United Nations Complex in Brasilia. Further details to follow.

The final report of the visit will be presented to the Human Rights Council in 2014.

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 on 30 September 2010. Learn more, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Detention/Pages/WGADIndex.aspx

(*) The other three members of the Working Group are El Hadji Malick Sow who is the Chair-Rapporteur (from Senegal), Shaheen Sardar Ali who is the Vice-Chair (from Pakistan) and Mads Andenas (from Norway).

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

For more information and media requests, please contact:
Miguel de la Lama, Secretary of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (+41 79 221 8074 / mdelalama@ohchr.org),
Jolene Tautakitaki (+41 79 217 3009 / jtautakitaki@ohchr.org) or
Valéria Schilling (+55 21 2253 2211 or 55 21 8202 0171 / valeria.schilling@unic.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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