Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – Database on Arbitrary Detention

This site was created with the assistance of Freedom Now, a non-governmental human rights organisation. It provides free access to documents issued by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The official mandate for this is Resolution 1991/42 of the former Commission on Human Rights (approved by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in decision 1991/243 of 31 May 1991) that established, initially for three years, a working group of five independent experts. The experts are mandated to investigate cases of deprivation of liberty imposed arbitrarily or otherwise inconsistently with the international standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the relevant international legal instruments accepted by the states concerned. Documents include case notes and human rights instruments. Topics include detention of immigrants and detention at Guantanamo Bay.