Arbitrary Detention Project

Remedies and Procedures on the Right of Anyone Deprived of his or her Liberty by Arrest or Detention to Bring Proceedings before a Court: A Comparative and Analytical Review of State Practice (April 2014)

This report was prepared for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary Detention, and analyses the domestic law of 21 jurisdictions (as well as the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights) concerning remedies and procedures on the right of anyone deprived of his or her liberty by arrest or detention to bring proceedings before a court.   The report focuses on the legal frameworks governing six types of detention:

• administrative detention for counter-terrorism, national security or intelligence gathering purposes;
• immigration detention;
• detention of persons with a mental illness;
• military detention;
• police detention (particularly in crowd-control situations or following arrest without a warrant); and
• preventive detention (particularly detention imposed alongside or subsequent to a sentence of imprisonment).

The report aims to assist the Special Rapporteur in the development of principles and guidelines concerning arbitrary detention for the UN Human Rights Council.

You can download the full report here.  You can browse or search all OPBP’s reports here.

A copy of OPBP’s Report is also available on the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights website here.