syria-un-20130205 60

A/HRC/22/59 60 GE.13-10627 Annex VI [English only] Arbitrary arrest and detentiona 1. International human rights law forbids detaining someone without a legal basis,b yet incidents of arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention continued apace over the reporting period. Accounts described not only an arbitrary substantive basis for the detention, but also numerous and serious procedural shortcomings. Armed groups seized individuals and held them hostage for ransom or exchange.c Fifty interviewees described their own or their relatives’ apprehension — by both Government forces and anti-Government armed groups — in circumstances that violate international law. 2. Almost all of those arrested were males, some of whom were children. In nearly one third of the cases, money changed hands prior to release, while nearly all described torture and conditions of detention amounting to inhumane treatment.d 3. Human rights provisions applicable in Syria require State personnel, at a minimum, to inform an arrested person of the reasons for their arrest, to bring the person promptly before a judge or similar independent body and to provide the detainee with an opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of detention.e During states of emergency, these provisions are derogable. To date, the Government has not filed a notice to the Office of the UN Secretary General informing of an intention to derogate. 4. Non-State actors are generally not permitted to detain people during peacetime under applicable domestic law. However, given that the threshold for armed conflict has been reached, international humanitarian law also applies. Thus, parties to the conflict who choose to detain a person must treat them humanely. They must avoid any cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and cannot hold them hostage. Indeed, individual criminal liability attaches to individuals who take hostages in relation to the conflict. I. Government forces and affiliated militia 5. Five interviewees worked as guards at official detention centres prior to defecting. They conveyed details behind the Government strategies and means of arbitrary arrest. Most often such arrests by Government forces were recorded during raids on a neighbourhood or village. Persons suspected of involvement in opposition activities were rounded up and taken to detention centres. Those arrested were often tortured to reveal information on others possibly involved (see A/HRC/22/59, annex VIII). The information gathered through these coercive techniques was used to compile lists of future arrestees. a See A/HRC/21/50, Annex II for the applicable law. b ICCPR article 9. c Under the ‘Elements of Crime’ of Rome Statute, hostage taking requires, inter alia, a detention; a threat to kill, injure, or continue detaining the person; the intent to compel a State or some other entity to act or refrain from acting as an explicit or implicit condition for the safety or the release of the detained person. d See Annex IX (Torture). e See A/HRC/21/50, Annex II, paras. 43–46 for an explanation of the legal framework applicable to arbitrary arrest, including provisions of domestic law