Deprivation of Liberty

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Individual Justice Cannot Be Streamlined: Some Reflections on Special Procedures Reform

February 4, 2026

In a recent article published on Universal Rights Group, Professor Alice Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, has offered a thoughtful and provocative proposal to reform the Special Procedures system. Observing that the system faces genuine challenges — inadequate funding, growing caseloads, inconsistent State cooperation, and what she describes as "a digital wasteland of lost hope and unmet human rights grievances" — she proposes a bold solution: to dissolve both our Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), replacing them with a new consolidated working group composed of five thematic Special Rapporteurs covering related mandates.

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J.A. and Others v. Italy – Is the European Court of Human Rights turning its focus to maritime migrants?

April 17, 2023

Between 9 and 10 March 2023, around 1,350 migrants arrived on the island of Lampedusa (Italy) by boat after a dangerous crossing of the central Mediterranean Sea. These reports are nothing new. Lampedusa has been known in recent years for the inhuman conditions in its overcrowded ‘hotspot centres’ for migrants. More generally,…

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SDG Report 2020: The Civil, Political, Economic, Social, Cultural, and Development Rights Crises Deepening in the Global South

July 15, 2020

The United Nations recently released its Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020, and the results are expectedly grim during this global pandemic.  Not only has the world fallen well off track from Agenda 2030 objectives - including the eradication of poverty - but the deepening inequalities within the Global South augur even worse outcomes for the most vulnerable populations on…

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The right to enter his or her own country

June 23, 2020

The tension between the right of the State to regulate entry into its jurisdiction and the right of the individual to move freely has come to the fore in the COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to contain the transmission of COVID-19, it has been reported that Samoa denied entry to eight of its nationals, and…

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Counter-terrorism control orders come to Switzerland: is assigned residence for ‘potential terrorists’ compatible with art. 5 ECHR?

June 6, 2020

The legislative responses to terrorist violence in Europe over the past several years have shown a new trend of circumventing proper judicial review and protections of criminal law by relying on ‘administrative measures’. Broadly, such measures can be defined as restrictions of a non-criminal nature, ordered by the executive in the name of terrorism prevention, and…

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