General Comment No. 35 of the UN Human Rights Committee can have definite significance to women and girls, and those dear to them. This General Comment states: “The right to security of person protects individuals against intentional infliction of bodily or mental injury, regardless of whether the victim is detained or non-detained.” It also includes death threats. This General Comment refers to Liberty & Integrity of the Person, and thus can extend to abductions and kidnapping, unlawful and arbitrary detention, treatment in prisons, forced confinement, and a multitude of situations in our complex, volatile, conflict-pervasive world. Women in media and women human rights defenders, trafficked and confined women, human slaves, will assuredly see important text in this General Comment.
“Deprivation of liberty and security of person have historically been principal means for impairing the enjoyment of other rights.”
UN Human Rights Committee - http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CCPR/Pages/CCPRIntro.aspx
The Human Rights Committee is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its State parties. All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented…… The Committee also publishes its interpretation of the content of human rights provisions, known as general comments on thematic issues or its methods of work.
Direct Link to Full 20-Page Human Rights Committee General Comment No. 35 – Offered in 6 Official UN Language Translations
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
CCPR/C/GC/35
Human Rights Committee
General comment No. 35
Article 9 (Liberty and security of person)*
I. General remarks
1. The present general comment replaces general comment No. 8 (sixteenth session), adopted in 1982.
2. Article 9 recognizes and protects both liberty of person and security of person. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 3 proclaims that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. That is the first substantive right protected by the Universal Declaration, which indicates the profound importance of article 9 of the Covenant both for individuals and for society as a whole. Liberty and security of person are precious for their own sake, and also because the deprivation of liberty and security of person have historically been principal means for impairing the enjoyment of other rights.
3. Liberty of person concerns freedom from confinement of the body, not a general freedom of action.[1] Security of person concerns freedom from injury to the body and the mind, or bodily and mental integrity, as further discussed in paragraph 9 below. Article 9 guarantees those rights to everyone. “Everyone” includes, among others, girls and boys, soldiers, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, aliens, refugees and asylum seekers, stateless persons, migrant workers, persons convicted of crime, and persons who have engaged in terrorist activity.
4. Paragraphs 2 to 5 of article 9 set out specific safeguards for the protection of liberty and security of person. Some of the provisions of article 9 (part of paragraph 2 and the whole of paragraph 3) apply only in connection with criminal charges. But the rest, in particular the important guarantee laid down in paragraph 4, i.e. the right to review by a court of the legality of detention, applies to all persons deprived of liberty.
…………………………………………………......................
Извор: WUNRN – 13.08.2016
