HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONTINUES DISCUSSION ON DRAFT GENERAL COMMENT ON THE RIGHT TO LIBERTY AND SECURITY OF PERSON

The Human Rights Committee today continued its reading of its Draft General Comment on Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the right of everyone to liberty and security of person.

The Committee Member acting as Rapporteur for Draft General Comment 35, Gerald Neuman, recapped on last session’s work on the comment, recalling that in the July 2014 session paragraphs 1 to 41 were adopted, with the exception of paragraph 15 which was adopted provisionally. He reminded the Committee that comments had been received from confidential sources which were neither States nor non-governmental organizations. The draft document being considered today was CCPR/C/GC/R.35/Rev.4 (not yet available online).

This morning the Committee discussed the draft text of paragraphs 42 to 45. The paragraphs covered issues including the right of a detainee to be brought automatically before the court and how detention that was originally lawful could become unlawful through the passage of time. They also covered ‘unlawful’ detention which violated both domestic law and detention that was incompatible with the provisions of the Covenant and on what counted as a court or a tribunal, especially if the institution was outside the judiciary such as a military tribunal.

Committee members considered various interpretations of the texts with Mr. Neuman and made decisions on the wording to be adopted, such as whether to include wording that indicated the possibility of a virtual presence through video conferencing. They also discussed the need to distinguish between detainees arrested and accused of a crime; and not only security detainees but all other detainees who had not been brought before a judge.

The Committee will continue the reading of its draft General Comment on Article 9 in a public meeting at 3 p.m. on Thursday, 16 October, and again at 10 a.m. on Friday, 17 October.


The next public meeting of the Committee will take place at 3 p.m. today when it will start its review of the second periodic report of Malta (CCPR/C/MLT/2).


For use of the information media; not an official record

CT14/034E