Deprivation of Liberty

Eirik Bjorge is the Shaw Foundation Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) is the only body in the international human rights system with a specific mandate to receive and examine cases on arbitrary deprivation of liberty. In this capacity it has, since 1991, interpreted and enforced the international legal rules on deprivation of liberty as they have developed in domestic, regional and international jurisdictions. Its jurisprudence can be accessed via its search engine. Earlier this year one of the members of the WGAD, Professor Mads Andenas, presented before the UN Human Rights Council the report 2012 WGAD activities. Obaidullah v United States Potential applicants and counsel are becoming increasingly aware of the opinions which make up the WGAD’s body of jurisprudence. A recent illustrative example is the opinion handed down by the WGAD in Obaidullah v United States on the detention of Bertola Obaidullah at Guantánamo Bay (distributed on 3 June 2013;…