1
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United Nations
General Assembly
A/HRC/WGAD/2015/29
Distr.: General
2 November 2015
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Opinions adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention at its seventy-third session,
31 August-4 September 2015
Opinion No. 29/2015 concerning Song Hyeok Kim (Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea)
1.
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was established in resolution 1991/42 of
the Commission on Human Rights, which extended and clarified the Working Group’s
mandate in its resolution 1997/50. The Human Rights Council assumed the mandate in its
decision 2006/102 and extended it for a three-year period in its resolution 15/18 of 30
September 2010. The mandate was extended for a further three years in Council resolution
24/7 of 26 September 2013.
2.
In accordance with its methods of work (A/HRC/30/69), on 25 March 2015 the
Working Group transmitted a communication to the Government of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea concerning Song Hyeok Kim. The Government replied to the
communication on 17 April 2015. The State is a party to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights.
3.
The Working Group regards deprivation of liberty as arbitrary in the following cases:
(a)
When it is clearly impossible to invoke any legal basis justifying the
deprivation of liberty (as when a person is kept in detention after the completion of his
sentence or despite an amnesty law applicable to him) (category I);
(b)
When the deprivation of liberty results from the exercise of the rights or
freedoms guaranteed by articles 7, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and, insofar as States parties are concerned, by articles 12, 18, 19, 21, 22,
25, 26 and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (category II);
(c)
When the total or partial non-observance of the international norms relating
to the right to a fair trial, established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in
the relevant international instruments accepted by the States concerned, is of such gravity
as to give the deprivation of liberty an arbitrary character (category III);
(d)
When asylum seekers, immigrants or refugees are subjected to prolonged
administrative custody without the possibility of administrative or judicial review or
remedy (category IV);
GE.15-19021(E)
*1519021*