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 where there has been no proper due process of law. Arbitrarily arresting and detaining persons is common in nation-states ruled by a totalitarian regime in which the political power grants its secret police, military and paramilitary the executive authority to arrest and detain citizens entirely at their own discretion, for as long as political dissenters and enemies of the state are either silenced or destroyed. In the typical police state, the arbitrary arrest and detention of a person or group of persons is often done surreptitiously, especially in cases of forced disappearance. Virtually all individuals who are arbitrarily arrested are given absolutely no explanation as to why they are wanted, and they are not shown any arrest warrant. The vast majority of arbitrarily arrested individuals are held incommunicado and their whereabouts are concealed from their family, associates, the public population and the open trial courts. 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.

Arbitrarily depriving an individual of their liberty is strictly prohibited by the United Nations' division for human rights. The International Criminal Court declares such a practice by government a major crime. Article #9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights decrees that 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 that the government cannot deprive an individual of their liberty without proper due process of law.

References

• Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest and Exile
• Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights

See also

• Forced disappearance
• Extrajudicial punishment
• secret police
• habeas corpus
• human rights
• state of emergency