Arbitrary Detention Research Articles

Passion Play, Philippines, 1984

For the western observer, ‘liberation theology’ can appear an unexpected mixture of orthodox religious belief and revolutionary political thinking. When Karl Gaspar, a lay Catholic who had been working with the poor on the island of Mindanao, was detained in 1983 under a Philippine law permitting arbitrary political detention, the mixture took theatrical form, in the creation of a passion play with a Christ conceived as labour-organizer. Karl Gaspar, who was released in February 1985, describes how liturgical drama took shape in a prison camp, in an account which appears by courtesy of Other Side magazine.

López v. Uruguay

29The individual in international law — In general — Human rights and freedoms — Persecution for trade union activities — Detention without trial — Abduction — Arbitrary arrest and detention — Detention incommunicado — Allegations of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment — Forced confessions — Delay of trial — Proper legal representation — International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 — Optional Protocol — U.N. Human Rights Committee — Procedure — Findings of facts in absence of evidence from State party — Whether derogations from Covenant justifiable — Allegations of violations on territory of another State — Whether considerations by Committee barred — Whether violations within scope of application of Covenant

Concern for Development Aid and Fundamental Human Rights: The Dilemma as Faced by the Netherlands

One of the basic assumptions made in dealing with human rights is the existence of universal norms that govern the way in which human beings ought to deal with other human beings. This assumption lies at the bottom of all debates on human rights. It is on this assumption that the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a declaration which contains principles that are supposed to apply universally to all people, at all times, and under any circumstances. The declaration recognizes the inherent human dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all people as basic to freedom, justice, and world peace. It contains fundamental principles such as the right to life, the right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Many of these rights, that belong to the category of classic civil liberties, were restated and reaffirmed in the 1966 Convenant on Civil and Political Rights. A second international covenant, adopted in 1966, deals with economic, social, and cultural rights; it gives expression to the view that human rights refer to more than classic civil liberties and that economic, social, and cultural development should also be considered as fundamental human rights.

The Politics of the Body: The Chilean Junta and the Anti-Fascist Struggle

The aftermath of the repression launched by the military coup d'etat of September 1, 1973, in Chile has brought with it the need for the victims of arbitrary arrest, torture, detention, and exile to find a way to express this unprecedented experience. Their testimonies respond to a rupture in the mode of collective perception of Chile's political development. The relative enforcement of bourgeois rights in previous decades, together with the acritical and general acceptance of an ideology that represented Chile as a nation with a solid democratic tradition, masked the intermittent massacres of workers, military plots, and repression of unions and left wing parties from the late 19th century to the present. Nevertheless, the military Junta's policy of systematic repression unquestionably marks a break in Chilean history that the intelligentsia has been forced to confront, analyze, and express. In particular, the coup and the repression have imposed new urgencies, themes, and forms on recent Chilean literature as it has sought to represent in artistic form the movement of the present. We should speak here of a literature founded on a patrimony of accumulated collective suffering. For this reason, a meditation on technique, its application, and concrete results cannot simply be located at the level of a solitary and gratuitous alienation. Chilean writers of the post-coup period are working to establish modes of consciousness and sensibility through which those who support the popular movement can think and feel the political tasks they will have to confront individually and collectively in the immediate future. Chilean literary criticism must also play a role in this process. This essay begins from the presupposition that literature is an ideological form. Literature is the imaginary representation of real social relations. Ideologies are typifications of human groups in the process of generating a culture. Human groups reproduce themselves as historical beings in the context of the prevailing cultural, economic, and political structures. Literature differentiates itself from other ideological forms-such as religion, philosophy, political theory, law, and science (to the extent that scientific practice remains bound up with ideology)-on the basis of its choice of anthropocentric representational

Garanties Constitutionnelles Relatives a L'individu Face à la Justice dans les États D'afrique Francophone

SUMMARYFrancophone African constitutions generally make provision for fundamental rights. In criminal proceedings, the principle nulla poena sine lege is expressly incorporated in some, but not all, the constitutions. All the constitutions legislate against arbitrary arrest and detention; some legislate against brutality and torture. But these rights are subject to numerous exceptions and limitations.African countries generally distinguish between constitutional provisions and ordinary laws; the former are supreme, and may only be amended by special procedures. Constitutionality of legislation is generally judged in the francophone states by the Supreme Court or a special tribunal (this procedure differs from that in the parent French and Belgian constitutions). Within each Supreme Court there are normally several chambers or divisions: judicial review of the constitutionality of legislation is generally the business of a constitutional chamber of the Supreme Court. There is often a political element in the nomination of the persons to serve on such a special constitutional court.

An International Organization for Human Rights in Prisons

When lovers of the ‘Arab nation’ proudly hail the ‘glorious’ common denominators bringing together the Middle Eastern and North African countries, they obliterateanother number of less glorious facets, one of which is the appalling conditions prevailing in prisons. Indeed, a quick look at the state of prisons in those countriesreveals practices of torture, arbitrary and illegal detention, disregard of the detainees’ right to defense and sometimes even death. In some countries, arbitrary arrests have even been legalized, mainly to target certain groups; in others,physical punishment is prescribed by law.

Economic and Social Council

Commission on Human Rights: The sixteenth session of the Commission on Human Rights was held in Geneva from February 29 to March 18, 1960, under the chairmanship of Mr. Mario Amadeo (Argentina). The agenda adopted by the Commission included discussion of advisory services in the field of human rights, the right of everyone to be free from arbitrary arrest, detention, and exile, a declaration on the right of asylum, freedom of information, national advisory committees on human rights, the prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities, communications concerning human rights, and a review of the human rights program along with consideration of the control and limitation of documentation.