Part I State Obligations and Rights Protected, Ch.II Civil and Political Rights, Art.7: Right to Personal Liberty

Abstract

This chapter looks at Article 7 of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), which refers to the core human value of individual liberty and is based on a dual structure. As highlighted by the Inter-American Court, it contains two types of rules. The first type is general and provides for the right to personal liberty and security. The second type is specific and composed of a set of rights and guarantees aiming at protecting the right not to be deprived of liberty unlawfully (Article 7-2) or arbitrarily (Article 7-3), including for debt (Article 7-7), to be informed of the reasons of the detention and to be notified of the charges brought against the detainee (Article 7-4), to judicial control of the deprivation of liberty (Article 7-5), and to contest the lawfulness of the arrest (Article 7-6). Article 7 is also invoked in many cases of enforced disappearances, which by their very nature involve an arbitrary denial of physical liberty of the victims; incommunicado detentions; deprivation of liberty in the context of migration or extradition; deprivation of liberty of juveniles, or institutionalization of children; and arbitrary detention in situations of enslavement and human trafficking, even when caused by a private person or paramilitary forces. This provision may also play a role in cases dealing with the broader concept of individual autonomy and self-determination.