Prof. Dr.

Moustafa Chaaban
Dr. Mohamed L. Zamzam

Lecture 4 ۱
Lecture 4 ۲
 Article 3 of UDHR
“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and
security of the person”

Article 9 of UDHR
“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest,
detention or exile”

Lecture 4 ۳
 Article 9 (1) of CCPR
“Everyone has the right to liberty and security
of person. No one shall be subjected to
arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be
deprived of his liberty except on such
grounds and in accordance with such
procedure as are established by law.”

Lecture 4 ٤
 The right to personal liberty aims at providing
protection against arbitrary or unlawful arrest
and detention. This basic guarantee applies to
everyone, including persons held on criminal
charges or on such grounds as mental illness,
vagrancy or immigration control.

 Other restrictions of movement, such as

banishment to an island or a certain area of a
country, curfews, expulsion from a county or
prohibition to leave a country, do not constitute
interference with personal liberty, although they
may violate other human rights, such as freedom
of movement and residence (article 14, UDHR).

Lecture 4 ٥
 An individual may be deprived of his or her
liberty only on legal grounds and under a
procedure established by law. The procedure
must conform not only to domestic law, but
also to international standards. The relevant
domestic law must not be arbitrary, i.e., it
must not be tainted by inappropriateness,
injustice or unpredictability

Lecture 4 ٦
 Moreover, law enforcement in any given case
must not be arbitrary or discriminatory, but
should be proportionate to all of the
circumstances surrounding the case.

 Typical examples of permissible grounds for

arrest and detention are to be found in article 5
of ECHR, which is understood to provide an
exhaustive list of cases of lawful deprivation of
liberty in Europe and can serve as a basis for the
interpretation of the term “arbitrary deprivation
of liberty” in article 9 of CCPR. Any imprisonment
on mere grounds of inability to fulfil a
contractual obligation, such as reimbursing a
debt, is explicitly prohibited by article 11 of
CCPR, article 7 (7) of ACHR and article 1 of the
Fourth Additional Protocol to ECHR

Lecture 4 ۷
 • Arrested persons have the right to be informed
promptly of the reasons for their arrest and
detention, and of their right to counsel. They must be
promptly informed of any charges brought against
them in order to be able to challenge the lawfulness
of their arrest or detention and, if they are indicted,
to prepare their defence.

 • Persons facing a possible criminal charge have the

right to be assisted by a lawyer of their choice. If
they cannot afford a lawyer, they should be provided
with a qualified and effective counsel. Adequate time
and facilities should be made available for
communication with their counsel. Access to the
counsel should be immediate.

Lecture 4 ۸
 Persons in custody have the right to communicate
with the outside, and in particular to have prompt
access to their family, lawyer, physician, a judicial
official and, if the detainee is a foreign national, to
consular staff or a competent international
organization. Access to the outside is an essential
safeguard against such human rights violations as
“disappearances”, torture and ill-treatment, and is
vital to obtaining a fair trial.

 Persons arrested on suspicion of a criminal offence

have the right to be brought promptly before a judge
or other judicial officer who must
◦ (a) assess whether there are sufficient legal grounds for
the arrest,
◦ (b) assess whether detention before trial is necessary

Lecture 4 ۹
 ◦ (c) safeguard the well-being of the detainee and
◦ (d) prevent violations of the detainee’s
fundamental rights.

 • Persons in pretrial detention have the right

to be tried within a reasonable time or else
 be released. In accordance with the
presumption of innocence, people awaiting
trial on criminal charges should not be held
in custody, as a general rule.

Lecture 4 ۱۰
 Persons deprived of their liberty on whatever
grounds have the right to habeas corpus, i.e.,
they may challenge the lawfulness of their
detention before a court and have their detention
regularly reviewed. The court must decide
without delay, normally within a few days or
weeks, on the lawfulness of the detention and
order immediate release if the detention is
unlawful.

 If detention for an unspecified period of time is

ordered (for instance, in a psychiatric hospital),
the detainee has a right to periodic review,
normally every few months. Lastly, any victim of
unlawful arrest or detention has an enforceable
right to compensation.

Lecture 4 ۱۱
 Thank you

End of Lecture 4

Lecture 4 ۱۲