CCPR/C/GC/35
instance or on appeal, does not in and of itself render any preceding detention
“unlawful”.155
52.
The financial compensation required by paragraph 5 relates specifically to the
pecuniary and non-pecuniary harm resulting from the unlawful arrest or detention.156 When
the unlawfulness of the arrest arises from the violation of other human rights, such as
freedom of expression, the State party may have further obligations to provide
compensation or other reparation in relation to those other violations, as required by
article 2, paragraph 3, of the Covenant.157
VII. Relationship of article 9 with other articles of the Covenant
53.
The procedural and substantive guarantees of article 9 both overlap and interact with
other guarantees of the Covenant. Some forms of conduct amount independently to a
violation of article 9 and another article, such as delays in bringing a detained criminal
defendant to trial, which may violate both paragraph 3 of article 9 and paragraph 3 (c) of
article 14. At times the content of article 9, paragraph 1, is informed by the content of other
articles; for example, detention may be arbitrary by virtue of the fact that it represents
punishment for freedom of expression, in violation of article 19.158
54.
Article 9 also reinforces the obligations of States parties under the Covenant and the
Optional Protocol to protect individuals against reprisals for having cooperated or
communicated with the Committee, such as physical intimidation or threats to personal
liberty.159
55.
The right to life guaranteed by article 6 of the Covenant, including the right to
protection of life under article 6, paragraph 1, may overlap with the right to security of
person guaranteed by article 9, paragraph 1. The right to personal security may be
considered broader to the extent that it also addresses injuries that are not life-threatening.
Extreme forms of arbitrary detention that are themselves life-threatening violate the rights
to personal liberty and personal security as well as the right to protection of life, in
particular enforced disappearances.160
56.
Arbitrary detention creates risks of torture and ill-treatment, and several of the
procedural guarantees in article 9 serve to reduce the likelihood of such risks. Prolonged
incommunicado detention violates article 9 and would generally be regarded as a violation
of article 7.161 The right to personal security protects interests in bodily and mental integrity
that are also protected by article 7.162
57.
Returning an individual to a country where there are substantial grounds for
believing that the individual faces a real risk of a severe violation of liberty or security of
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
16
432/1990, W.B.E. v. Netherlands, para. 6.5; 963/2001, Uebergang v. Australia, para. 4.4.
1157/2003, Coleman v. Australia, para. 6.3.
Ibid., para. 9; 1128/2002, Marques de Morais v. Angola, para. 8; general comment No. 31, para. 16.
See also paragraph 17 above.
General comment No. 33, para. 4; 241 and 242/1987, Birindwa ci Birhashwirwa and Tshisekedi wa
Mulumba v. Zaire, para. 12.5; see concluding observations: Maldives (CCPR/C/MDV/CO/1, 2012),
para. 26.
449/1991, Mojica v. Dominican Republic, para. 5.4; 1753/2008, Guezout et al. v. Algeria, paras. 8.4
and 8.7.
1782/2008, Aboufaied v. Libya, paras. 7.4 and 7.6; 440/1990, El-Megreisi v. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,
para. 5.4.
General comment No. 20, para. 2.