1.1.1.2 Article 10 ICCPR
Article 10(1) ICCPR states:
“All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with
respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.”
UN TREATY BODIES
Article 10 complements, for those who have been deprived of their liberty, the
prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. Not only may detainees not be subjected to treatment contrary to Article 7, but they also have a positive right to
be treated with respect. This provision means that detainees may not 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.”22 It therefore covers forms of treatment which would not be sufficiently severe to qualify as cruel, inhuman or
degrading under Article 7.23
1
From the jurisprudence of the HRC, it seems that the Committee tends to
apply Article 10(1) to general conditions of detention, reserving Article 7 for
situations where an individual is subjected to specific attacks on his or her personal integrity.24 In Kennedy v Trinidad and Tobago, for example, the Committee considered that beatings to which the author was subjected while in police
custody amounted to a violation of Article 7, whereas the general conditions
under which he was held, which included overcrowding while on remand and
solitary confinement while on death row, violated Article 10(1).25 To support a
finding of a violation of Article 7, on the other hand, a detainee must show that
he or she has been subjected to worse treatment than other detainees. In Pinto
v Trinidad and Tobago, the author complained about appalling conditions of
detention, but “failed to provide details on the treatment he was subject to, other
HRC, General Comment No. 21, “Humane treatment of persons deprived of their liberty”
(1992), §3, in UN Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.7
23
Notwithstanding this lower threshold level of severity, and the fact that Article 10 as a whole
is not included in the list of non-derogable rights in Article 4 ICCPR, the HRC has concluded
that Article 10(1) expresses a norm of general international law, and is therefore not subject to
derogation. See HRC, General Comment No. 29, “Derogations during a state of emergency”,
§13(a), in UN Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.7.
24
Manfred Nowak, U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: CCPR Commentary, 2nd revised
edition, NP Engel, Strasbourg, 2005, p. 250.
25
Kennedy v Trinidad and Tobago, HRC Communication No. 845/1998, 26 March 2002, §§7.7–
7.8. In this case, the author was kept on remand for a total of 42 months with between five and
ten other detainees in a cell measuring 6 by 9 feet. Following his trial, he was detained for a
period of almost eight years on death row, during which he was subjected to solitary confinement in a small cell with no sanitation except for a slop pail and no natural light. He was
allowed out of his cell only once a week, and provided with wholly inadequate food that did
not take into account his particular dietary requirements.
22
9
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents