UN Working Group adopts “Basic 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”.

GENEVA (29 April 2015) – The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention today has concluded its 72nd regular session. The session, which took place in Geneva from 20 to 29 April 2015, saw the adoption by the Working Group of its final text of the “Basic 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”*, and submitted the text to the Human Rights Council.

The document was developed by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at the request of the Human Rights Council by its resolution 20/16 of 17 July 2012. The project represents a useful framework to guide Member States on the principles on which the court review of the lawfulness of detention is based.

The Working Group’s different drafts of the principles and guidelines have been the subject of extensive consultation with States, United Nations agencies, intergovernmental organizations, treaty bodies, other special procedures, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations. The consultation also involved convening a global consultation to bring together thematic and regional experts to elaborate on the scope and content of the right to bring proceedings before a court without delay, and to allow stakeholders to contribute to the development of the draft principles and guidelines. At the first stage of the process states submitted responses to a questionnaire about domestic law, to which have been added later submissions by states, national human rights institutions and a study by the Oxford Pro Bono Publico. http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/about/opbp/

The draft basic principles and guidelines will be presented to the Human Rights Council during its 30th session in September 2015.

During its 72nd session, the Working Group adopted 21 opinions concerning individual cases of detention. It was also decided to amend paragraph 3 of its Methods of Work and to appoint a Chair-Rapporteur and 2 Vice-Chairs accordingly.

 (*) See the final text of the Draft Basic 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: 
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Detention/DraftBasicPrinciples/BasicPrinciplesAndGuidelines.doc

ENDS

The Working Group is comprised of five independent expert members from various regions of the world. The Chair-Rapporteur is Mr. Seong-Phil Hong (Republic of Korea), the First Vice-Chair is Mr. José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez (Mexico) and the Second Vice-Chair is Mr. Sètondji Roland Jean-Baptiste Adjovi (Benin); other members are Mr. Mads Andenas (Norway) and Mr. Vladimir Tochilovsky (Ukraine).

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was established by the former Commission on Human Rights in 1991 to investigate instances of alleged arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Its mandate was clarified and extended by the Commission to cover the issue of administrative custody of asylum-seekers and immigrants. In 2010, the Human Rights Council confirmed the scope of the Working Group's mandate and extended it for a further three-year period in September 2013. Learn more, log on to:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Detention/Pages/WGADIndex.aspx

For more information and media requests, please contact Mr. Miguel de la Lama (+41 22 917 9289 / mdelalama@ohchr.org) or write to wgad@ohchr.org.

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