Arbitrary Detention

Grounded in my personal experience as a survivor of psychiatric violence, I take a historical approach to the recent development of norms that support a demand for reparations for psychiatric violence. I introduce the reader to the advocacy by the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP) that led to the establishment of norms in international law that require the abolition of forced psychiatric interventions, and discuss the confirmation by international human rights mechanisms of our position that such interventions are acts of ill treatment and/or torture. Following that, I share key advances and challenges in national implementation, and my proposal for a social model of crisis support to fill a gap in our advocacy and to respond to current challenges. Finally I set out the argument for reparations and indicate the forms it might take.

"Born into a wealthy Bangkok family in 1917, Ajarn Angun Malik was one of the first professors in the Faculty of Humanities when Chiang Mai University (CMU) opened in 1964. Ajarn Angun’s house and garden in Chiang Mai, Suan Anya, or Anya Garden, was mentioned as the site of many activist organizing meetings, communal living, as well as a place of shelter for student and farmer activists fleeing state and para-state forces after the 6 October 1976 massacre and coup. After the massacre, she chose not to flee to the jungle to join the CPT because she viewed her actions as being in the service of justice; some state officials perceived differently and she was arrested and detained as “a danger to society” for ninety days at the Karunyathep Center in Chiang Mai. Ajarn Angun’s significant material generosity supported and facilitated many different social justice projects, during here time in Chiang Mai as well as after she retired from civil service and returned to Bangkok.

Between December 2003 and August 2005, I collected seven cremation and commemoration volumes about Ajarn Angun’s life. Her name came up in every interview about progressive activist in the 1970s that I conducted with former student and farmer activists, professors, CMU staff, and others. Most striking were the accounts of the intangible roles Ajarn Angun played in her students’ and colleagues’ lives. Many people sited her life as the example that either propelled them towards activism, or helped sustain their commitment to justice.

Yet, despite her clear and multifaceted role, she is not mentioned in any of the histories about political activism or movements in the 1970s outside of the books published in her honor. While part of the explanation to why Ajarn Angun is absent is the sheer recognition that this period has yet to be fully treated academically, thornier issues complicate her inclusion. The more I learned about her life, the more important to political history, or the history of how people struggle to contest the ruling order, and how the ruling order responds, she seemed. Her material support of activist groups was critical to their work, her maverick teaching and classroom dress stood in opposition to the entrenched order, and her personal example facilitated and enlivened the farmer and student movements in Chiang Mai in the mid-1970s. In this article I argue that the very definition, and gendering, of politics is at stake here. While tracing the ambivalent place of Ajarn Angun in recent Thai history, I develop a new conception of politics capable of accounting for the multiple sites and varied ways that individuals change their lives and join with others to change society."

The Decree Law no. 113 of 2018, known as “Decreto Sicurezza”,
transforms in‐depth the domestic regulation on immigration, asylum
and border management, as well as providing rules on urban security
and the mayor’s powers. This essay focuses on the main amendments
concerning the asylum seekers’ detention and pre‐removal detention.
Moreover, it refers to the provision of measures aimed at increasing the
number and types of detention facilities. The author’s approach is aimed
at framing such changes in International Law and European Union Law
framework. As a result of this analysis, the A. identifies a substantial
continuity of the Italian migration policies characterized by a securitiza‐
tion perspective and she raises many doubts about the lawfulness of the
widespread use of detention in this field. Indeed, deprivation of liberty
measures are applied with deterrent and punitive purposes, instead of
representing last resort measures.

Syrian religious minorities have been at the heart of a war of political
narratives. The Assad-led government in particular has portrayed itself as a ‘protector of minorities’ in one justification for its continued
hold on power. By touting this narrative of protection, the government has both co-opted Syrian religious minorities, regardless of
their own political views, and demonised millions of Sunni
protestors, in rhetoric that has dismissed them as ‘terrorists’ rather
than citizens seeking political, economic and social justice. Sectarian
state rhetoric has therefore contributed to deepened fissures between different religious communities.

Syrian religious minorities are often assumed to be politically aligned
with the Syrian government, eliminating a space for civilians and activists to express their own views and experiences, on their terms,
during the conflict. On the ground, this narrative has been used by
both the Assad-led government and armed groups to justify human
rights violations against detained minority-background activists and
perpetrate harm against civilians more widely.

The intersecting issues of freedom of association, arbitrary detention, and gender based violence and harassment (GBVH) facing migrant workers on global product and labor supply chains should be an area of focus as the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants prepares his thematic report on the right to freedom of association of migrants. The submission highlights limitations on the right to freedom of association for migrant workers on global product and labor supply chains, including the experiences of garment workers, construction workers, seafood processing workers, and domestic workers, with a focus on the relationship between barriers to freedom of association, and arbitrary detention and GBVH. The submission demonstrates the intersection of these issues across the globe, and the urgent need for action to address this critical intersection of rights violations by drawing together examples from Abu Dhabi, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Qatar, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and the United States.

This minor dissertation is a research paper on the use of arbitrary detention to criminalise asylum seekers in South Africa. After the democratic transition in 1994 South Africa became a leading destination for asylum seekers from across the African continent. South Africa’s post-apartheid immigration and refugee system were based on a human-rights approach and aimed at creating a culture of inclusion and tolerance. Despite a progressive Refugee Act, the most prominent aspect of the South African asylum system is its use of arbitrary detention as a form of immigration control. The goal of this research is to analyse the criminalisation of asylum seekers through arbitrary detention in South Africa. This is done through an analysis of the roles the Refugee Act and the Immigration Act play in the asylum process. In understanding the nexus between arbitrary detention and the deprivation of liberty, this research analyses the normative frameworks that inform international and South African legislation. The use of detention as an immigration tool has resulted in a cycle of criminalisation. The South African institutions and erroneous application of immigration laws has criminalised the act of seeking asylum - a universal human right. After an in-depth analysis of the asylum process in South Africa and how arbitrary detention has criminalised asylum seekers, this research discusses the alternatives to detention most applicable in the case of South Africa. The erroneous application of laws, politicization of asylum seekers and use of detention for administrative and deterrence reasons are the primary reasons for the unlawful detention of asylum seekers in South Africa. This research reveals that there are alternatives to the use of detention as the first port of call, this largely lies in the reform of the country’s implementation of refugee law. The progressive nature of the Refugee Act guarantees protection from arbitrary detention, by redressing the management of the asylum process and institutions, the Refugee Act can be better implemented to reflect the human-rights approach it embodies.

Le dernier rebondissement de la saga Julian Assange a été communiqué au grand public par la voie des médias le 5 février 2016. Dans son avis no 54/2015 adopté à sa 74ème session (30 novembre - 4 décembre 2015), le Groupe de travail sur la détention arbitraire du Conseil des droits de l’Homme a pris position sur la situation du fondateur de Wikileaks, déclarant qu’elle constituait une privation arbitraire de liberté.

The first half of year 2018 has witnessed exacerbating apprehension and detention of politicians, journalists, bloggers, and human rights activists against the backdrop of their political activism as well as expressing their opinions freely. This came in conjunction with el-Sisi's second presidential term. 
Egyptian Front was able to monitor the arrest of 144 person distributed over 7 cases where they were interrogated and accused by State Security Prosecution of publishing false news and joining a group established against the law. These charges are widely known to be loose and subject to the discretion of the investigation authorities.
This occurred during when the House of Representatives passed a number of media and press regulation laws among which is the Cybercrime law. This law faced objections as it included a number of articles that restrict freedom of opinion and expression. Earlier, on the 28th of February, 2018, the public prosecutor assigned attorney generals and directors of public prosecution, each in their own area of specialization, to monitor false news published on social media by “Evil people who wants to jeopardize the security and safety of the country”, according to the statement issued by the public prosecution.

In response to these actions that reflect the authorities ‘pursuit of activists, the Spokesperson of the European External Action Service issued a statement on the 30th of May 2018 stating that the increase in the arrest of human rights defenders, political activists, and bloggers in Egypt is a worrying development.

Egyptian Front has monitored the arrest of 13 political activists, 2 bloggers, 9 journalists, 5 photojournalists, 2 film crew members, 2 lawyers, one researcher, 5 students, 3 among those who were shooting in a polling station, 4 among those who participated in Al Quds demonstrations in December 2017, 23 among those who protested against the increase in Metro tickets prices in May 2018. This in addition to others whom the organization was unable to identify their work as well as reasons of their arrest.

This report aims to examine the nature of these recent arrests through shedding the light on these 7 cases investigated by Supreme State Security Prosecution. The cases, in a chronological order, are as following: Case no. 977 for the year 2017 and cases no. 441, 467,482,621,718,734 for the year 2018. Also, Egyptian front was able to collect and present information related to the detainees -activists, journalists, and human rights defenders- held in pre-trial detention in the aforementioned cases. This in addition to examining the legislative context that accompanied the arrests as well as violations that jeopardized the rights of the accused as guaranteed by the constitution and international conventions.

Arbitrary detention, abductions, ill-treatment and torture of Saharawi by the Moroccan occupying forces, are a reality vastly documented by numerous national and international NGOs including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and present in the reports submitted by Mr. Christopher Ross, special envoy of the Secretary General the United Nations. and the 2013 report of special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez . Mr. Méndez reaffirmed in a press conference,  on the 18th October 2016, in the UN headquarters in New York , in answer to the question of InnerCityPress about torture of Saharawi Political Prisoners, that it is a common practice in Morocco and his request for a follow-up visit to Morocco and Western Sahara was unsuccessful.
Neither the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Morocco ratified on 14 June 1993 nor the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners are respected in the case of Saharawi political prisoners.
Western Sahara is illegally occupied by the Moroccan Kingdom and Saharawi citizens are forced to carry Moroccan Identity and Passports, the whole judicial process is corrupted from that start since Moroccan authorities have no legal jurisdiction over the territory.
Saharawi citizens are abducted from their homeland by the occupying forces and transferred to prisons in the Kingdom of Morocco, the legal procedures and international requirements were not observed with the over 60 Saharawi political prisoners that are currently in Moroccan jails, their trials were faulty, with no evidences produced other than confessions obtained under torture. Currently all Saharawi political prisoners are detained in the Kingdom of Morocco, hundreds and thousands km from their homeland.
This report is far from exhaustive and the cases mentioned given are only an example of the continues and grave ill treatment of the Saharawi Political Prisoners.