Assessing Damage, Urging Action • Detention pending deportation must be time-limited and cease when deportation is not a realistic prospect; it should not be used as a disguised form of administrative detention on discriminatory grounds; • The principle of non-refoulement must be fully respected; • “Diplomatic assurances” cannot discharge a State from its duties under the principle of non-refoulement; • Remedies should be provided to allow individuals to appeal detention prior to deportation, and decisions on deportation, before a civilian judicial authority. This latter point is particularly important. At present, there is no shared international consensus that, in deportation, extradition or expulsion proceedings, human rights law explicitly and necessarily requires a full fair hearing before an independent tribunal. However, the Panel was left in no doubt that, particularly when a deportation decision affects a long-term or permanent resident, and where there is a serious risk of the deportee being subjected to serious human rights violations upon return, only a hearing by an independent judicial body, constitutes an acceptable process. Such an appeal should have a suspensive effect, particularly where irreparable harm is at stake. The root problem here is that, for some countries, immigration law has now moved centre-stage in their counter-terrorism strategies; the law was not designed with that in mind. States need to re-visit this situation. b. Administrative detention Administrative detention has often given rise in the past to serious human rights violations; yet, the Panel felt that much of the learning from the past have been ignored. There is a real risk of continuing human rights violations if the framework of settled international law continues to be set aside when developing current counter-terrorist preventive strategies. It may be helpful to make a clear exposition here of some of the basic tenets of international law as they apply to administrative detention: • any form of administrative detention must be limited to the most exceptional circumstances, namely a bona fide state of emergency threatening the life of the nation; • even in a bona fide emergency, constituting a threat to the life of the nation, and therefore allowing for exceptional measures, administrative detention must be subject to stringent safeguards and 119