Arbitrary arrest and detention

Arbitrary arrest and detention, or (AAD), is the arrest and detention of an individual in a case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that he or she committed a crime against legal statute, or in which there has been no proper due process of law [cite web |title=Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest and Exile |work=Human Rights Law |publisher= [http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/ United Nations Cyber Schoolbus] | url =http://www0.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/declaration/9.asp |date=2006-11-09 | accessdate =2007-09-30] .

Arbitrary arrest and detention

Arbitrarily arresting and detaining persons contradicts rule of law established in democracies as well as habeas corpus and is thereafter illegal in those regimes. It is often a characteristic of dictatorships or police states, which may also engage in forced disappearance.

Virtually all individuals who are arbitrarily arrested are given absolutely no explanation as to why they are being arrested, and they are not shown any arrest warrant [cite web |title=Human Rights Violations by the Indonesian Armed Forces |work=Human Rights |publisher= [http://www.hrw.org/ Human Rights Watch] | url =http://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/indtimor/Indtimor-04.htm |date=1998-06-27 | accessdate =2007-09-30] . The vast majority of arbitrarily arrested individuals are held and their whereabouts are concealed from their family, associates, the public population and the open trial courts [cite web |title=Arbitrary arrest / Incommunicado detention / Risks of ill-treatment - SYR 003 / 0506 / OBS 060 |work=Human Rights |publisher= [http://www.fidh.org/ International Federation for Human Rights] | url =http://www.fidh.org/spip.php?article3324 |date=2006-05-15 | accessdate =2007-09-30] [cite web |title=Enforced Disappearance and Incommunicado Detention in China |work=Human Rights |publisher= [http://www.omct.org/ World Organisation Against Torture] | url =http://www.omct.org/index.php?id=&lang=eng&articleId=7239 |date=2007-08-31 | accessdate =2007-09-30] . Many individuals who are arbitrarily arrested and detained suffer physical and/or psychological torture during interrogation, as well as extrajudicial punishment and other abuses in the hands of those detaining them.

International law

Arbitrarily depriving an individual of their liberty is strictly prohibited by the United Nations' division for human rights. Article 55 of the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court declares such a practice by government a major crime [cite web |title=Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court |work=International Law |publisher= [http://www.un.org/ United Nations] | url =http://www.un.org/law/icc/statute/99_corr/cstatute.htm |date=1998-07-17 | accessdate =2007-09-30] . Article 9 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights decrees that "no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile" [cite web |title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights |work=Human Rights |publisher= [http://www.un.org/ United Nations] | url =http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html |date=1998-12-01 | accessdate =2007-09-30] ; that is, no individual, regardless of circumstances, is to be deprived of their liberty or exiled from their country without having first committed an actual criminal offense against a legal statute, and the government cannot deprive an individual of their liberty without proper due process of law.

References

See also

* Forced disappearance
* Extrajudicial punishment
* Secret police
* Habeas corpus
* Human rights
* State of emergency