3. Notification of rights – arrested persons
The main innovation of the Directive is to establish a positive obligation on the Member States to
provide arrested persons with a ‘letter of rights’ explaining their rights. Article 4 provides:
‘1. Member States shall ensure that suspects or accused persons who are arrested or
detained are provided promptly with a written Letter of Rights. They shall be given an
opportunity to read the Letter of Rights and shall be allowed to keep it in their
possession throughout the time that they are deprived of liberty.
2. In addition to the information set out in Article 3, the Letter of Rights referred to in
paragraph 1 of this Article shall contain information about the following rights as they
apply under national law:
(a) the right of access to the materials of the case;
(b) the right to have consular authorities and one person informed;
(c) the right of access to urgent medical assistance; and
(d) the maximum number of hours or days suspects or accused persons may be
deprived of liberty before being brought before a judicial authority.
3. The Letter of Rights shall also contain basic information about any possibility, under
national law, of challenging the lawfulness of the arrest; obtaining a review of the
detention; or making a request for provisional release.
4. The Letter of Rights shall be drafted in simple and accessible language. An indicative
model Letter of Rights is set out in Annex I.’
A little more detail is provided in Recital 22:
‘Where suspects or accused persons are arrested or detained, information about
applicable procedural rights should be given by means of a written Letter of Rights
drafted in an easily comprehensible manner so as to assist those persons in
understanding their rights (…)’ (emphasis added).
Again, we would point out the emphasis, in the text of the Directive, upon the role of the Letter of
Rights in facilitating comprehension of procedural rights. We would also suggest that the
‘opportunity to read the Letter of Rights’ makes little sense if not read with the idea contained in
recital 19, namely that this should place before questioning. These are ideas we will develop below.
D. USING THE DIRECTIVE IN PRACTICE
1. Preliminary point: the Directive governs notification, not the actual rights
The Directive does not govern the substance of the rights to silence, counsel etc. which is left for
national law, as the case may be, subject to obligations under other Directives (i.e. Directive
2010/64/EU for the right to interpretation and translation, Directive 2013/48/EU for the right of
17
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents