UN Joint Study on Secret Detention
The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment have initiated a Joint Study to examine the practice of secret detention from a global perspective.
The Joint Study aims to produce new findings regarding the nature and scope of secret detention practices. The Joint Study will examine the practice or permission of secret detentions to operate on the territories of States from various geographical regions, taking into account domestic, regional and global efforts to counter-terrorism.
In addition to thematic reporting on facts and events, the Joint Study will also include a legal analysis of the framework for the operation of secret places of detention, and findings as to the extent to which persons have been tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment at such places.
It is anticipated that the two Special Rapporteurs will produce a Joint Report containing recommendations regarding these practices, aimed at curbing the resort to secret detention and the unlawful treatment of detainees in the context of contemporary counter-terrorism efforts.
If you wish to submit information to this Joint Study, please go to the link: https://esurvey.ohchr.org/Survey.aspx Submissions are welcome up to 1 May 2009.
The Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Martin Scheinin, was appointed to this mandate in August 2005 and is a Professor of Public International Law at the European University Institute.
The Special Rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, was appointed to this mandate in December 2004 and is a Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Vienna and Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights.