UN experts issue study on secret places of detention

last updated Jan 28, 2010

On 26 January 2010, the Special Rapporteur on Torture, Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances issued a wide-ranging study on states’ use of secret detention in connection with counter-terrorism activities. The non-exhaustive study lists 66 States, the majority in connection with secret detention and related activities – including so-called ‘proxy detention’ and ‘rendition’ or ‘extraordinary rendition’ – over the past nine years of the “Global War on Terror.” For the study, the authors sent out detailed questionnaires to states and held interviews with 30 victims of secret detention, their family members or legal counsel. The authors concluded that “secret detention is irreconcilably in violation of international human rights law including during states of emergency and armed conflict. Likewise, it is in violation of international humanitarian law during any form of armed conflict. They further held that “in spite of these unequivocal norms, secret detention continues to be used in the name of countering terrorism around the world.” The study, making numerous recommendations covering both law and practice, will be presented to the Human Rights Council in March 2010.