Extrajudicial detention
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Arbitrary or extrajudicial detention is the detention of individuals by a state, without ever laying formal charges against them.
Although it has a long history of legitimate use in wartime (see prisoner of war, Civilian Internee), detention without charge, sometimes in secret, has been one of the hallmarks of totalitarian states. Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile."
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[edit] Writ of Habeas Corpus
In English speaking democracies, since the thirteenth century signing of the Magna Carta, captives were able to call upon the writ of habeas corpus — literally "you have the body." This legal procedure required the state to show that there was a meaningful, legal justification for their detention.
[edit] Detention without charge by democratic countries
In recent decades some democratic countries have introduced limited mechanisms whereby individuals can be detained without being charged or convicted of a crime. See, for example, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and the Canadian Minister's Security Certificate.[1][2]
[edit] See also
- Internment
- Guantanamo Bay detention camp
- Black site
- Arbitrary arrest and detention
- Extrajudicial prisoners of the United States
[edit] References
- ^ Frederick Zimmerman, ed. (2004). Basic documents about the treatment of the detainees at Guantánamo and Abu .... Nimble Books LLC,. ISBN 9780975447901. http://books.google.ca/books?id=AQwCZufvntYC&pg=PA201&dq=%22extrajudicial+detention%22+guantanamo&hl=en&ei=OXhlTLKoKpOhngf20fWBDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22extrajudicial%20detention%22%20guantanamo&f=false. "Hamdi argues that he is owed a meaningful and timely hearing at that "extrajudicial detention [that] begins and ends with the submission of an affidavit based on third-hand hearsay" does not comport with the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments."
- ^ Karen J. Greenberg. The Least Worst Place: How Guantanamo Became the World's Most Notorious Prison. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199557677. http://books.google.ca/books?id=dhxhzg6RiI4C&pg=PA91&dq=%22extrajudicial+detention%22+guantanamo&hl=en&ei=OXhlTLKoKpOhngf20fWBDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22extrajudicial%20detention%22%20guantanamo&f=false. "In other words the lawyers who were struggling to discover or invent--a legal rationale for indefinite extrajudicial detention, unregulated yb American of international law, had come down to see, however briefly, the flesh and blood reality that their ongoing work affected."
[edit] External links
- Guantanamo group of 47 'should be held indefinitely' BBC January 22, 2010
- Human Rights First: In Pursuit of Justice; Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Courts (2009)
- Human Rights First; Undue Process: An Examination of Detention and Trials of Bagram Detainees in Afghanistan in April 2009 (2009)
