section will therefore focus primarily on Article 5 of the ECHR, although it will also review UN standards and OSCE commitments.422 UN standards The UN system has evolved a number of standards in relation to the right to liberty. Article 10, ICCPR, builds upon Article 9 by dealing with the treatment of prisoners in detention. It: • stipulates that all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person (Article 10(1)); • provides for the segregation, save in exceptional circumstances, of accused persons from convicted ones and that juvenile persons shall be separated from adults (Article 10(2)); and • states that the “essential aim” of imprisonment should be “the reform and social re-adaptation of prisoners” (Article 10(3)). Article 10 has a clear relationship with the protection from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment. The Human Rights Committee’s General Comment on Article 10 of the ICCPR provides useful guidance in this area. It clarifies that Article 10 imposes on states parties a positive obligation towards persons who are particularly vulnerable because of their status as persons deprived of liberty: [N]ot only may persons deprived of their liberty not be subjected to [torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment], including medical or scientific experimentation, but neither may they be subjected to any hardship or constraint other than that resulting from the deprivation of liberty; respect for the dignity of such persons must be guaranteed under the same conditions as for that of free persons. Persons deprived of their liberty enjoy all the rights set forth in the [ICCPR], subject to the restrictions that are unavoidable in a closed environment.423 Significantly, the Human Rights Committee has also stressed that the obligation to treat persons deprived of their liberty with dignity and humanity is a fundamental and universally applicable rule, not dependent on the material resources available to the state party.424 In the context of the detainees at Guantánamo Bay who have not been convicted of any criminal offence, a joint report of several UN special rapporteurs stated that limited periods of solitary confinement may comply with Article 10, but periods of solitary confinement that run back to back for up to 18 months and that are aimed at causing stress are unlikely to, and might also amount to inhuman treatment in violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR.425 The HRC has found a breach of Article 10 in relation to the treatment of detainees in a number of cases. In these cases, however, the conditions have tended to be quite serious: 422 Due to the increasing cross-pollination between international human rights jurisdictions, the detailed standards that have been developed under Article 5 ECHR are likely to be read into Article 9 ICCPR. 423 HRC, General Comment No. 21 (Replaces General Comment 9) concerning humane treatment of persons deprived of liberty (Art. 10), 10 April 1992, para.3. 424 Ibid., para. 4. 425 Op. cit., note 178, Situation of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, para. 53. 148 Countering Terrorism, Protecting Human Rights