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Article 4: States of Emergency 2001, para. 13d
- Paragraph text
- [In those provisions of the Covenant that are not listed in article 4, paragraph 2, there are elements that in the Committee's opinion cannot be made subject to lawful derogation under article 4. Some illustrative examples are presented below.] As confirmed by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, deportation or forcible transfer of population without grounds permitted under international law, in the form of forced displacement by expulsion or other coercive means from the area in which the persons concerned are lawfully present, constitutes a crime against humanity. The legitimate right to derogate from article 12 of the Covenant during a state of emergency can never be accepted as justifying such measures.
- Body
- Human Rights Committee
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2001
Paragraph
Article 12: Freedom of movement 1999, para. 5
- Paragraph text
- The right to move freely relates to the whole territory of a State, including all parts of federal States. According to article 12, paragraph 1, persons are entitled to move from one place to another, and to establish themselves in a place of their choice. The enjoyment of this right must not be made dependent on any particular purpose or reason for the person wanting to move or to stay in a place. Any restrictions must be in conformity with paragraph 3.
- Body
- Human Rights Committee
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Article 12: Freedom of movement 1999, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- The permissible limitations which may be imposed on the rights protected under article 12 must not nullify the principle of liberty of movement, and are governed by the requirement of necessity provided for in article 12, paragraph 3, and by the need for consistency with the other rights recognized in the Covenant.
- Body
- Human Rights Committee
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Article 12: Freedom of movement 1999, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- In order to enable the individual to enjoy the rights guaranteed by article 12, paragraph 2, obligations are imposed both on the State of residence and on the State of nationality. Since international travel usually requires appropriate documents, in particular a passport, the right to leave a country must include the right to obtain the necessary travel documents. The issuing of passports is normally incumbent on the State of nationality of the individual. The refusal by a State to issue a passport or prolong its validity for a national residing abroad may deprive this person of the right to leave the country of residence and to travel elsewhere. It is no justification for the State to claim that its national would be able to return to its territory without a passport.
- Body
- Human Rights Committee
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Article 12: Freedom of movement 1999, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- In no case may a person be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his or her own country. The reference to the concept of arbitrariness in this context is intended to emphasize that it applies to all State action, legislative, administrative, and judicial; it guarantees that even interference provided for by law should be in accordance with the provisions, aims and objectives of the Covenant and should be, in any event, reasonable in the particular circumstances. The Committee considers that there are few, if any, circumstances in which deprivation of the right to enter one's own country could be reasonable. A State party must not, by stripping a person of nationality or by expelling an individual to a third country, arbitrarily prevent this person from returning to his or her own country.
- Body
- Human Rights Committee
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Article 12: Freedom of movement 1999, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- The law itself has to establish the conditions under which the rights may be limited. State reports should therefore specify the legal norms upon which restrictions are founded. Restrictions which are not provided for in the law or are not in conformity with the requirements of article 12, paragraph 3, would violate the rights guaranteed by paragraphs 1 and 2.
- Body
- Human Rights Committee
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Article 12: Freedom of movement 1999, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The principle of proportionality has to be respected not only in the law that frames the restrictions, but also by the administrative and judicial authorities in applying the law. States should ensure that any proceedings relating to the exercise or restriction of these rights are expeditious and that reasons for the application of restrictive measures are provided.
- Body
- Human Rights Committee
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Article 9: Liberty and security of person 2014, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- 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.
- Body
- Human Rights Committee
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development 1994, para. 16.28
- Paragraph text
- The Secretary-General of the United Nations is invited to consult with the various bodies of the United Nations system, as well as with international financial institutions and various bilateral aid organizations and agencies, with a view to promoting an exchange of information among them on the requirements for international assistance and to reviewing, on a regular basis, the specific needs of countries in the field of population and development, including emergency and temporary needs, and maximizing the availability of resources and their most effective utilization.
- Body
- International Conference on Population and Development
- Document type
- Declaration / Confererence outcome document
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 1994
Paragraph
Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention 2014, para. Preamble 8
- Paragraph text
- Recognizing that the context and forms of forced or compulsory labour have changed and trafficking in persons for the purposes of forced or compulsory labour, which may involve sexual exploitation, is the subject of growing international concern and requires urgent action for its effective elimination, and
- Body
- International Labour Organization
- Document type
- International treaty
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- The lack of appropriate legislation criminalizing such practices as trafficking, forced labour and degrading treatment, as well as the obstacles sometimes placed on non-citizens to denounce such abuses, are a grave omission of the State's responsibility to protect those under their jurisdiction. These practices also lead to violations of the right of the affected persons to adequate housing.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Mapping and framing security of tenure 2013, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- The crisis manifests itself in many forms and contexts. Forced evictions are its most visible and egregious sign. Displacement resulting from development, natural disasters and conflicts, land grabbing, and the growing number of urban dwellers living under insecure tenure arrangements worldwide are further manifestations of the crisis.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Reflection on work undertaken in first 14 years of the mandate; outline of opportunities and priorities 2014, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Central to State obligations with respect to the right to adequate housing is the obligation to take positive measures to realize that right. According to article 2.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the State is obliged to take steps, through international assistance and cooperation, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the right by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures. Historically, however, the obligation of States to take steps or positive measures to realize the right to adequate housing has not received as much attention in the development of legal norms as other aspects of States' obligations. Legal norms have focused more often on State action that interferes with the right to adequate housing. As a result, at the international level there is more clarity about legal norms applied to forced evictions and comparatively less about the positive obligation to address homelessness or to allocate the resources necessary to ensure access to housing for marginalized groups. Similarly, domestic courts tend to deal with more cases and develop more jurisprudence on evictions and service disconnections than on failures to prioritize the development of services for informal settlements.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Migration and the right to adequate housing 2010, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- Lack of security of tenure, xenophobic sentiments and segregating urban policies facilitate the forced eviction of these groups from the areas in which they reside. Citing their irregular status and lack of tenure, official authorities proceed to evict them without reasonable prior notification or consultation and fail to provide them with alternative accommodation or compensation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- Trafficking is one path into domestic servitude. International law defines trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Slavery, practices similar to slavery and servitude are among the worst forms of exploitation that can result from trafficking; the victim's "consent" to such exploitation is immaterial.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Access to justice for people living in poverty 2012, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- Persons living in poverty face greater and disproportionate barriers and disincentives in accessing registration services, which are often geographically distant for them, time-consuming and unaffordable. The travel costs to access registration services are added to relatively high fees charged for the issuance of identity documents and to the working time lost. These costs are more burdensome for the poor.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Minorities in situations of humanitarian crises 2016, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Stateless persons are particularly vulnerable as they do not enjoy the right to nationality or any of the corresponding human and civil rights, and they may be targeted, or not adequately protected, by national authorities. In times of humanitarian crises, conflict or natural disasters, this lack of protection can be particularly acute. Statelessness can often be a root cause of forced displacement, particularly in times of crises. Forced displacement can in turn heighten the risks of becoming stateless, particularly as documents may be lost in flight.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Climate change and internal displacement 2011, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Other actors have also enriched the discussion by focusing on specific rights or the impact of climate change on particular groups. In addition to posing a direct threat to the right to life, the effects of climate change are expected to have negative implications for basic rights relating to food (A/HRC/7/5), housing (A/64/255), water and health, and affect the overall right to an adequate standard of living (A/HRC/10/61, paras. 21-38). Some of these analyses have highlighted the link between the lack of access to these rights and displacement. In the context of climate change, internally displaced persons are also a growing category of persons considered to be especially at risk, given the adverse material, social and psychological consequences commonly associated with displacement. These risks are heightened by the fact that the most serious effects of climate change, including displacement, are predicted to disproportionately affect poor regions and countries and populations already in a vulnerable situation owing to poverty and other factors.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Developing the Global Compact on Migration 2016, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The only way to effectively reduce smuggling is to offer more accessible, regular, safe and affordable mobility solutions, with all the identity and security checks that efficient visa procedures can provide.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Detention of migrants in an irregular situation 2012, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- Stateless persons do not benefit from the consular or diplomatic protection of a State, often do not possess identity documents and do not have a country to which to be returned. Stateless persons are especially vulnerable to prolonged detention. Being stateless and therefore not having a country to which automatic claim might be made for the issue of a travel document should not lead to indefinite detention, and statelessness cannot be a bar to release. The UNHCR guidelines affirm that stateless persons are entitled to benefit from the same standards of treatment as those in detention generally.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Detention of migrants in an irregular situation 2012, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- Non-custodial measures must conform to relevant principles of international law, including the principles of non-discrimination, necessity and proportionality and should not prevent individuals from exercising their other human rights, including the right to health and education. Alternatives to detention which impose restrictions on the liberty of movement need to be in compliance with article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides for the right to liberty of movement for everyone lawfully within the territory of a State. The term "lawfully within the territory" has been held to apply to persons who are allowed to remain in a country because the host State is unable to carry out an expulsion or deportation order (Human Rights Committee, communication No. 456/1991). Article 12, paragraph 3, of the Covenant provides that any restrictions on the right to liberty of movement must be provided by law, and be necessary to protect national security, public order, public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
The human rights of migrants on a 2035 agenda for facilitating human mobility 2017, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur envisions an agenda that, building on target 10.7, outlines how human mobility can be facilitated effectively and underlines the importance of taking a long-term strategic approach to developing more accessible, regular, safe and affordable mobility policies and practices that will place States in a better position to respond to the significant demographic, economic, social, political and cultural challenges that lie ahead.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Banking on mobility over a generation: follow-up to the regional study on the management of the external borders of the European Union and its impact on the human rights of migrants 2015, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- Developing a human rights-based framework by tackling the most pressing concerns and sustaining the political will needed to stay the course of reform over a generation will allow the European Union to bank on the economic and social benefits of mobility.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Developing the Global Compact on Migration 2016, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Taking such a long-term strategic approach in developing the global compact for accessible, regular, safe and affordable mobility policies and practices will place States in a better position to respond to the significant demographic, economic, social, political and cultural challenges that lie ahead.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Global migration governance 2013, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- The Treaty of Rome provided the right to free movement of workers within the European Economic Community, thus recognizing the economic benefits of free movement. The European Union's expansion in 2004, including to Eastern Europe, proved that free movement is also possible for countries with different levels of economic development, enhancing the benefits of mobility for all concerned.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
The right to access information 2013, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- In its considerations, the Court has emphasized that the State must demonstrate a certain amount of due diligence in searching and providing information. For example, it was of the view that the State could not seek protection in arguing the lack of existence of the requested documents but, to the contrary, must establish the reason for denying the provision of the said information, demonstrating that it had adopted all the measures within its power to prove that, in effect, the information sought did not exist. Furthermore, the Court deemed it essential that, in order to guarantee the right to information, the public powers should act in good faith and diligently carry out the actions necessary to ensure the effectiveness of that right, especially when it dealt with the right to the truth of what had occurred in cases of gross violations of human rights, such as those of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial execution in the case under consideration.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
The transformative potential of the right to food 2014, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Indeed, many least developed countries have succumbed to a vicious cycle. As they were confronted from the 1960s to the 1990s with strong population growth and rural-to-urban migration, their governments had no choice but to depend more on food aid or to import more food products. This made it even more difficult for their own farmers to make a decent living from farming, as they faced increased dumping of heavily subsidized foodstuffs on domestic markets. In effect, the import of low-priced food products functioned as a substitute for improved wages for workers in the non-agricultural sectors, and for the establishment of social protection floors for all. As the Special Rapporteur noted in the report he prepared following his mission to WTO (A/HRC/10/5/Add.2), this was perhaps a convenient solution so long as the prices of basic food commodities remained stable or were declining. However, with higher and increasingly volatile prices, it results in new threats to the right to food of net food buyers and is a recipe for social and political instability. Furthermore, the increased reliance on food imports is a major cause of "nutrition transition" in the developing world, by which nutritionists mean the shift to processed foods richer in salt, sugar and saturated fats - foods that have a long shelf life and are attractive to urban populations and younger generations, but are often less nutritious and less healthy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Solitary confinement 2011, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Studies have found continued sleep disturbances, depression, anxiety, phobias, emotional dependence, confusion, impaired memory and concentration long after the release from isolation. Additionally, lasting personality changes often leave individuals formerly held in solitary confinement socially impoverished and withdrawn, subtly angry and fearful when forced into social interaction. Intolerance of social interaction after a period of solitary confinement is a handicap that often prevents individuals from successfully readjusting to life within the broader prison population and severely impairs their capacity to reintegrate into society when released from imprisonment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
The scope and objective of the exclusionary rule in judicial proceedings and in relation to acts by executive actors 2014, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- The admission of evidence, including real evidence obtained through a violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment in any proceedings, constitutes an incentive for law enforcement officers to use investigative methods that breach those absolute prohibitions. It indirectly legitimizes such conduct and objectively dilutes the absolute nature of the prohibition. The exclusionary rule is not limited to criminal proceedings but extends to military commissions, immigration boards and other administrative or civil proceedings. Moreover, the use of the phrase "any proceedings" suggests that a broader range of processes is intended to be covered; essentially, any formal decision-making by State officials based on any type of information.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
A human rights-based approach to the administration of criminal justice in cases of trafficking in persons 2012, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- It should be recalled that these persons are first and foremost victims of trafficking who, by virtue of that status, are entitled to immediate protection and support. International law clearly states that all trafficked persons have a right to protection from further harm, a right to privacy, and a right to physical and psychological care and support. Trafficked persons also have a right to be informed of their legal options and given the time, space and help required to consider those options carefully. In some cases, this may require the regularization of the trafficked person's legal status to allow them access to services and to protect them from deportation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph