ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses detention laws relating to suspected terrorists in a sample of those countries, law of armed conflicts (LOAC), and five general international human rights treaties, together with related jurisprudence and guidance materials. The rule of law requires that the law afford adequate protection of fundamental human rights. In order to prevent abuse, detention must be anchored and administered further within a coherent legal framework, based on international human rights and various good practices identified in domestic laws. The Human Rights Committee (HRC)'s guidance on Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in General Comment No. 3516 considers that security detention "presents severe risks of arbitrary deprivation of liberty". In the case of detention under the Emergency Powers (Detention) Law (EPDL), within forty-eight hours of arrest detainees are brought before a district court for judicial review.
