Question of arbitrary detention.

1991/42. Question of arbitrary detention

The Commission on Human Rights, Recalling its resolution 1985/16 of 11 March 1985, in which it requested the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities to analyse available information concerning the practice of administrative detention without charge or trial, and to make appropriate recommendations on the use of this practice, Recalling its resolutions 1988/45 of 8 March 1988 and 1989/38 of 6 March 1989, as well as its decision 1990/107 of 7 March 1990, Reaffirming articles 3, 9 and 10 as well as other relevant provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Taking note of Sub-Commission resolution 1990/22 of 30 August 1990, in which the Sub-Commission expressed its appreciation to Mr. Louis Joinet for the revised report on the practice of administrative detention (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1990/29 and Add.1), endorsed the revised recommendations therein, decided to transmit these recommendations to the Commission on Human Rights and invited the Commission to consider the different proposals contained in these recommendations, Conscious of the interest in giving concrete application to the analysis and recommendations formulated in the report, Recognizing, as Mr. Joinet noted in his recommendations, that since his study was first initiated, the General Assembly has, in its resolution 43/173, of 9 December 1988, adopted the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, which also covers administrative detention and that, therefore, there is no longer a purpose in treating administrative detention independently, even if, in certain cases, the procedure of administrative detention gives rise to specific abuses, Noting the important work carried out in this field by the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the Secretariat and by the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control,

1. Takes note with appreciation of the analysis and recommendations formulated in the revised report on the practice of administrative detention, submitted by Mr. Louis Joinet to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities at its forty-second session;

2. Decides to create, for a three-year period, a working group composed of five independent experts, with the task of investigating cases of detention imposed arbitrarily or otherwise inconsistently with the relevant international standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or in the relevant international legal instruments accepted by the States concerned;

3. Decides that the working group, in carrying out its mandate, shall seek and receive information from Governments and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and shall receive information from the individuals concerned, their families or their representatives;

4. Invites the working group to take account, in fulfilling its mandate, of the need to carry out its task with discretion, objectivity and independence;

5. Requests the working group to present a comprehensive report to the Commission at its forty-eighth session;

6. Requests the Secretary-General to provide all necessary assistance to the working group to enable it to accomplish its task;

7. Decides to continue its consideration of the question at its forty-eighth session under the agenda item "Question of human rights of all persons subjected to any form of detention or imprisonment";

8. Recommends the following draft decision to the Economic and Social Council for adoption:

[For the text, see chap. I, sect. B, draft decision 11.]

52nd meeting
5 March 1991
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. X.]