Administrative detention is

arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be question ...

and detention of individuals by the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

without

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for

security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercion). Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems, or any other entity or ...

reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

rebellion Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

, to control

illegal immigration Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to do so. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, wi ...

, or to otherwise protect the ruling regime. In a number of jurisdictions, unlike

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

incarceration Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...

(imprisonment) imposed upon

conviction In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is Guilty (law), guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a ...

following a trial, administrative detention is a forward-looking mechanism. While criminal proceedings have a retrospective focus – they seek to determine whether a defendant committed an offense in the past – the reasoning behind administrative detention often is based upon contentions that the suspect is likely to pose a threat in the future. It is meant to be preventive in nature rather than punitive (see

preventive detention Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non- punitive purposes, most often to prevent further criminal acts. Preventive detention sometimes involves the detention of a convicted criminal who has served their sente ...

). The practice has been criticized by

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

organizations as a breach of

civil and political rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

. In other jurisdictions it is retrospective, i.e., it is a form of punishment for a certain category of offenses.

Counter-terrorism

Administrative detentions are defined in the law of many of the world's states. In democratic countries using administrative detention as a

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...

measure, the rationale given by its proponents is that legal existing systems are ill-suited to handle the specific challenges presented by terrorism. Proponents of administrative detention maintain that criminal law's reliance on defendant rights and strict rules of evidence cannot be used effectively to remove the threat of dangerous terrorists. Some of the reasons often used to support this claim are that the information used to identify terrorists and their plots may include extremely sensitive intelligence sources and methods, the disclosure of which during trial would undermine future counter-terrorism operations. It is also claimed that the conditions under which some suspected terrorists are captured, especially in combat zones, make it impossible to prove criminal cases using normal evidentiary rules. Proponents also maintain that criminal prosecution is designed primarily to punish past behavior, thus it is deliberately skewed in favor of defendant, in order to assure that few, if any, innocents are punished. Counter-terrorism, on the other hand, aims to prevent future action, and thus requires a system that is weighed more heavily toward reducing the possibility of future harm, by ensuring that no guilty party will go free. The

Laws of War The law of war is a component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war (''jus ad bellum'') and the conduct of hostilities (''jus in bello''). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territories, ...

are also seen by the proponents as inadequate. These laws allow the capture of enemy fighters, and also allow holding them for the duration of hostilities without

. However, these laws grew out of the need to regulate combat between professional armies accountable to a sovereign state, who were engaged in combat of possibly lengthy, but finite duration. Attempting to apply these laws to terrorists who are intermingled with a civilian population and accountable to no-one opens the possibility of indefinite detention without trial, combined with a substantial likelihood of error. Opponents of administrative detention challenge the above assumptions. While acknowledging the need to protect the sources and methods used to obtain sensitive intelligence, they maintain that existing laws, such as the

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA, , ) is a Law of the United States, United States federal law that establishes procedures for the surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence on domestic soil.Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), successfully balance the need to protect sensitive information, including the sources and means of intelligence gathering, with defendants' fair trial rights. They point to the historical record of prosecutors who were able to obtain convictions against terrorists on the basis of existing laws. Opponents maintain that in essence, administrative detention is a form of

collective punishment Collective punishment is a punishment or sanction imposed on a group or whole community for acts allegedly perpetrated by a member or some members of that group or area, which could be an ethnic or political group, or just the family, friends a ...

. Since it does not require proof of individual guilt, it attributes to all members of a group the actions of a few.

Immigration control

Many countries utilize administrative detention to hold illegal immigrants – those arriving at a country's borders without proper authorization – as an interim step to either

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...

or the obtainment of proper legal status. Immigration detention is controversial because it presents a clash between traditional notions of individual liberty and the territorial

sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

of states. Comparative studies on administrative detention practices of different countries found that those experiencing large-scale influxes of illegal migrants by sea (such as the United States and Australia) typically have the most draconian systems. Proponents of administrative detention for illegal immigrants claim that detention is required since these immigrants have not committed any crime for which they could be prosecuted under existing laws, and that allowing them to await their potential deportation while not in custody runs a risk of their absconding. Opponents maintain that alternatives to detention exist, and that such alternatives are preferable because they do not violate personal liberty, as well as being less of a financial burden to the state. Among the alternatives suggested are supervised release to a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

(NGO), the release into the custody of a private citizen who will guarantee the immigrant's participation in immigration hearings, and "open detention" centers with mandatory reporting requirements.Research Paper on Alternatives to Detention
European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), London, September 1997

Protection of the ruling regime

In many non-democratic countries, administrative detention is used by the ruling regime to suppress dissent and sanction opponents of the government. In

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

in particular, administrative detention was first introduced by the British and French colonial authorities prior to and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Created as a mechanism to control political dissent, it has ironically survived and made its way into the law books of the now-independent former colonies, who legitimized its use against their own political opponents in their constitutions. In many cases, they were and are codified as "emergency measures" or "internal security" acts.

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, India,

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

are notable examples of such former colonies who hold political prisoners under administrative detention which has its legal roots in British colonial practices.

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

is an example where administrative detention was widely used by the French colonial authorities in the 1930s, to arrest those suspected of

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

activities. Post-independence, the now-ruling Communist authorities have employed very similar means to detain those suspected of "counter-revolutionary" offenses. Some of these political prisoners, such as

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Myanmar), Ministe ...

in Myanmar, have become known worldwide due to the detention, and their cause is championed by human rights organizations.

Instances

Armenia

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

has been criticized by

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

for not fully reforming the legal framework it inherited from the former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and failing to bring its administrative detention system into accord with prevailing international norms. During the 2003 Presidential elections, Armenian police arbitrarily applied the Code of Administrative Offenses, under which administrative detention is authorized, to lock up dozens of opposition activists and supporters for periods of up to fifteen days.

Australia

Like many other countries experiencing large scale illegal immigration, such as Canada and the United States, Australia has a system of mandatory administrative detention for illegal immigrants, or asylum seekers who arrive at its shores without proper visas. The legal basis for this system is found in Australia's

Migration Act 1958 The ''Migration Act 1958'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that governs immigration to Australia. It set up Australia’s universal visa system (or entry permits). Its long title is "An Act relating to the entry into, and pre ...

(Cth), which authorized the indefinite detention of an unlawful non-citizen who can not be deported immediately. Human Rights Watch criticized this Australian policy, claiming it seriously contravenes Australia's obligations to non-citizens, refugees and asylum seekers under international human rights and refugee law. Additionally, opposition to the system on humanitarian grounds came from a range of religious, community and political groups including the National Council of Churches in Australia, Amnesty International, the

Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a Left-wing politics, left-wing green party, green Australian List of political parties in Australia, political party. As of 2025, the Greens are the third largest politica ...

and Rural Australians for Refugees

Brazil

Administrative detentions in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

are admitted only for members of the military. Any member of the

Brazilian Armed Forces The Brazilian Armed Forces (, ) are the unified Military, military forces of the Brazil, Federative Republic of Brazil. Consisting of three Military branch, service branches, it comprises the Brazilian Army (including the Brazilian Army Aviati ...

may be imprisoned if found to be repeatedly in violation of the Military Disciplinary Regulations (''Regulamento Disciplinar'') by his or her superiors. Each military branch has issued a list of "transgressions" in their Disciplinary Regulations. The harshest punishment of this kind, in the Brazilian Army, is a 30-day imprisonment penalty. Notwithstanding, members of the Brazilian Armed Forces under administrative detention may be granted a ''

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...

'' by the justice system to deliver them from imprisonment. They retain their full rights as citizens.

China

The use of administrative detention in China has been commonplace since before 1949. At that time, it was used primarily against minor offenders as well as against

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

addicts,

prostitute Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pe ...

s, vagrants and those considered to be insane. Since the 1978 legal reforms in China, the public security departments (gong'an jiguan), primarily the police, hold administrative detention powers which are used alongside the state's criminal justice system. Administrative detention is used against subjects that are viewed by the ruling regime as "socially undesirable", in order to maintain public order, social stability and political stability of the ruling regime. There is a well-established history of forced labour,

arbitrary arrest and detention Arbitrary arrest and detention is the arrest and detention of an individual in a case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that they committed a crime against legal statute, or in which there has been no proper due process of law or order. ...

of minority groups, including: Falun Gong members,

Tibetans Tibetans () are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live in t ...

, Muslim minorities,

political prisoners A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

and other groups. In the case of the Falun Gong in particular, there have been claims of extraordinary abuses of human rights in

concentration camps A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...

, including

organ harvesting Organ procurement (also called surgical recovery) is a surgical procedure that removes organs or tissues for reuse, typically for organ transplantation. Procedures If the organ donor is human, most countries require that the donor be legally d ...

and systematic torture. This target group includes prostitutes and their clients, drug addicts, political dissenters and petty criminals, who perform legal misdemeanors that are not serious enough for criminal prosecution. Custody and repatriation ( zh, c=收容遣送, p=shōuróng qiǎnsòng) was also used until 2003 for people, especially peasants, who did not have required papers. There are three main forms of these administrative detentions: "detention for education" ("Shourong jiaoyu"), coercive

drug rehabilitation Drug rehabilitation is the process of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines. The general int ...

("Qiangzhi jiedu"), and " reeducation through labor" ("Laodong jiaoyang"). In addition, administrative detention is used for several internal security reasons, such as detention under the Security Administrative Punishments Law ("Xingzheng juliu"); Administrative detention for questioning of suspects ("Luizhi panwen"); and detention of juvenile offenders in work-study schools ("Gongdu Xuexiao"). In recent years, government policy has been marked by

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by Local government, local and federal governments or intell ...

and the incarceration without trial of over one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minority ethnic groups in "re-education camps", supposedly for ' anti-terrorist' purposes. Numerous reports have stated that many of these minorities have been used in prison labour in a seeming return to the "re-education through labour" program, supposedly abolished in 2013. As of May 2020, the last terrorist attack was in 2014, before the concentration camps were established. Under the Security Administrative Punishments Law, the administrative detention in China for misdemeanors for up to twenty days. Teenager of sixteen years old or less and women who are pregnant or feeding an infant less than one years old are exempt. Teenager aged sixteen to eighteen are exempt from their first misdemeanor. Administrative detention shall be signed and approved by the administrative responsible person (ie, director) of the public security agency at the county level and above, and shall be executed in the administrative detention facility under the public security agency. Those who are dissatisfied with the detention may initiate administrative reconsideration and administrative litigation. According to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the Chinese national security agency and

People's Armed Police ) , abbreviation = PAP ("People's Armed Police") CAPF ("Chinese Armed Police Force"), formerly abbreviated''Wujing'' ( zh , s = 武警 , p = Wǔjǐng , l = Armed Police , labels = no ), or WJ as on vehicle license plates , patch ...

has also been granted the power to enforce administrative detention penalties. The use of administrative detention in China has been criticized by . These criticisms maintain that the police often abuse their power, that the execution of these powers is at the complete discretion of the police, and that there are no legal constraints placed on their execution.

Egypt

Egypt's Emergency Law No. 162 of 1958 authorizes the government to suspend basic civil liberties by declaring a state of emergency. Such a state of emergency has been in force almost continuously since 1967. Acting under this law, Egyptian authorities have administratively detained individuals who were suspected of membership in banned organizations such as the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

, as well as individuals engaged in peaceful demonstrations expressing opposition to the war in Iraq or support for the Palestinian uprising.

has criticized this practice as the use of emergency legislation for 'repression of public dissent'.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

charges that relatives of political prisoners in Egypt have been administratively detained solely because of their family relationship. The Egyptian government refuses to disclose how many administrative detainees are held, but human rights groups estimate that 16,000–20,000 are held in detention without charge.

India

India's National Security Act of 1980 empowers the

Central Government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

and State Governments to detain a person to prevent him/her from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of India, the relations of India with foreign countries, the maintenance of public order, or the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the community it is necessary so to do. The act also gives power to the governments to detain a foreigner in a view to regulate his presence or expel from the country. The act was passed in 1980 during the Indira Gandhi Government. The maximum period of detention is 12 months. The order can also be made by the

District Magistrate The district magistrate, also known as the district collector or deputy commissioner, is a career civil servant who serves as the executive head of a district's administration in India. The specific name depends on the state or union territo ...

or a

Commissioner of Police A police commissioner is the head of a police department, responsible for overseeing its operations and ensuring the effective enforcement of laws and maintenance of public order. They develop and implement policies, manage budgets, and coordinate ...

under their respective jurisdictions, but the detention should be reported to the State Government along with the grounds on which the order has been made. The National Security Act along with other laws allowing preventive detention have come under wide criticism for their alleged misuse. The act's constitutional validity even during peacetime has been described by some sections as an

anachronism An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...

Ireland

Ireland utilizes administrative detention to control illegal immigration. Beginning in 1996, a legal framework was put in place to authorize the use of administrative detention for this purpose. This legal framework includes the Refugee Act, 1996, the Immigration Acts, 1999, 2003 and 2004, and the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000. According to official Irish government statistics, in 2003–2004, a total of 2,798 people were administratively detained for immigration-related reasons, two thirds of whom were held in prison for periods of longer than 51 days. The vast majority (more than 90%) of detainees are held in one of two

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

prisons, Cloverhill Prison (male detainees) and the Dóchas Centre at Mountjoy Prison (female detainees). The rest are held in prisons as well as border control (Garda Síochána) stations. The

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

and human rights organizations have criticized the overcrowded conditions in which the detainees are held, as well as the fact that detainees are held together with convicted criminals. In addition, Human Rights Consultants have reported that Irish law does not protect the rights of detainees, by not informing them of their right to challenge the legality of their detention, nor recognizing their rights to have access to a lawyer and to have access to medical care.

Israel

The legal basis for Israel's use of administrative detention is the British Mandate 1945

Defence (Emergency) Regulations The Defence (Emergency) Regulations are an expansive set of regulations first promulgated by the British authorities in Mandatory Palestine in 1945, The British repealed them before withdrawing from Palestine in 1948. Along with the entire body ...

, which were amended in 1979 to form the Israeli Law on Authority in States of Emergency. Administrative detention is for six-month terms, although they can be extended barring appeal. Administrative detention is also used in cases where the available evidence consists of information obtained by the security services (particularly the

Shin Bet The Israel Security Agency (ISA; , (GSS); ), better known by the Hebrew acronyms, acronyms Shabak (; ; ) or Shin Bet (from the abbreviation of , "Security Service"), is Israel's internal Security agency, security service. Its motto is "''Magen ...

), and where a trial would reveal sensitive security information, such as the identities of informers or infiltrators. Although it is commonly applied to alleged Palestinian political activists, it has also been applied to a few Jewish Israeli citizens, including Jewish right-wing public-figures and activists (notably in the aftermath of the

assassination of Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister of Israel, was assassinated on 4 November 1995 at 21:30, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv. The assailant was Yigal Amir, an Israeli law student and u ...

) and in more recent years sometimes to

settlers A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

for short periods. Within Israel, the Minister of Defense has the authority to issue administrative detention orders for up to 6 months in cases where there is a reasonable chance that the person harms the security of the state. The same officeholder has the authority to renew such orders. Likewise, the Chief of the General Staff can issue such orders, but valid for only 48 hours. Law enforcement authorities have to show cause within 48 hours (in a hearing behind closed doors). Administrative detention orders can be appealed to the district court and, if denied there, to the

Supreme Court of Israel The Supreme Court of Israel (, Hebrew acronym Bagatz; ) is the Supreme court, highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction. The Supreme Court consists of 15 jud ...

. The District Court can annul such orders if it finds the administrative detention occurred for reasons other than security (mainly for common crimes or the exercise of freedom of expression). Overall supervisory authority on the application of the relevant law rests with the Minister of Justice. In the early days of the occupation, administrative detention was used in the Gaza Strip to detain youths who were unemployed and not engaged in study, even if there was no suspicion against them.Ofer Aderet
Innocent Palestinians in Remote Desert in Sinai,'

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

29 July 2021 In 1971, they were sent to a remote internment camp in the Sinai Desert and told they could be released if they found work in the West Bank. Within the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

, any Israeli district army commander can issue an administrative detention order, and the order can be appealed at the Israeli district military court, or, if denied there, at the Supreme Court. Here too, an administrative detention order is valid for at most six months, but can be renewed by the appropriate authority. Israel refers its use of administrative detention in the occupied territories to Article 78 of the

Fourth Geneva Convention The Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (), more commonly referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention and abbreviated as GCIV, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1 ...

1949, which states that "If the Occupying Power considers it necessary, for imperative reasons of security, to take safety measures concerning protected persons, it may, at the most, subject them to assigned residence or to internment." Administrative detainees israel en

According to Addameer, Israel held 285 Palestinians in administrative detention in June 2012. Eighteen of them were members of parliament, out of 4,706 prisoners. According to B'Tselem, as of April 2012, about 308 Palestinians were being held under administrative detention by the Israel Prisons Service (IPS), and statistics on those held by the IDF were unavailable. According to IPS figures for December 2012, 178 Palestinians were being held in administrative detention (without charge or trial). As of December 2013, B'Tselem reported that 140 Palestinians were being held under administrative detention by the IPS. In August 2015, the Israeli Government approved the usage of administrative detention against Jewish settler suspects to curb the increasing number of "price tag" attacks. As of August 2022, more than 700 persons were held in administrative detention, all of them Palestinian including 7 Israeli citizens. On 2 May 2023, Khader Adnan died following an 87-day hunger strike while in administrative detention for the 12th time. As of the beginning of February 2024, there were 3,484 Palestinians under administrative detention according to The Times of Israel, citing an article of Haaretz.

Japan

In Japan, immigration detention is a form of administration detention under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, Act No. 319 of 1951 (ICRRA). Minors and asylum seekers can also be subject to administrative detention. Another type of administrative detention in Japan (see :ja:勾留) is under , individuals suspected of a crime may be held for up to 23 days without being formally charged. The duration of detention, within this limit, is determined by the public prosecutor and must be approved by local courts.

Jordan

The Crime Prevention Law (No. 7 of 1954) in

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

authorizes administrative detention. Authority resides with Jordan's provincial governors and the administrators of provincial subdivisions. The law allows the detention of anyone "about to commit a crime or to assist in its commission", people who "'habitually' steal, shelter thieves, or fence stolen goods" or anyone deemed to present "a danger to the people" if they are not detained. According to Jordan's National Centre for Human Rights, administrative detention was used in 11,870 cases in 2008, 16,050 in 2009, 12,345 in 2010, and 11,345 in 2011. The law does not provide for independent or court review of the administrative detention decisions although detainees can petition the High Court of Justice. Women who were at risk of violence, honor killing, by family members were administratively detained even though the Crime Prevention Law does not provide a legal basis for that. The use of the law in this way has been criticized by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch. In 2007, the government opened the Wifaq Center for women at risk of violence, and in 2008, women who had been in protective custody were transferred from prison to the center, although the practice of sending women to prison for "protective custody" using the Crime Prevention Law has not completely ceased. In 2018 the government completely abolished the practice by establishing Dar Amneh and transferring endangered women to the center without restricting their freedom.

Myanmar

In an overview that describes

as "one of the most repressive countries in Asia", Human Rights Watch quotes a

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

report that states that in 2002, there were approximately 3,500 detainees in Myanmar, of which 1,300 are political prisoners, including parliament members. Burmese authorities often extend the detention of prisoners who have already served their prison sentences, by placing them under administrative detention. This practice is used even with elderly and infirm prisoners. One of the most notable cases of this practice was the detention of

Russia

Administrative detention in Russia is incarceration for grave administrative offenses according to Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses.

Syria

Legislative Decree No. 51 of 22 December 1962 introduced the State of Emergency Law, which came into force on 8 March 1963, that allowed the security forces to hold suspects in preventive detention without judicial oversight for indefinite periods.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has maintained many forms of administrative detention over the years. The most recent forms were a series of Acts intended to introduce a form of administrative detention to Northern Ireland under the auspices of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1974. This Act allowed the security forces to apprehend and detain persons suspected of terrorist activities without trial for an unlimited period. The introduction of the Act led directly to the creation of internment camps (particularly Long Kesh (the Maze) and the prison ship HMS ''Maidstone'' where suspects were detained, some for protracted periods. The Act of 1974 was amended a number of times during the late 20th and early 21st century, the most recent incarnation being the

Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (c 2) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, intended to deal with the Law Lords' ruling of 16 December 2004 that the detention without trial of eight foreigners (known as the 'Belmarsh 8') at ...

which introduced the concept of the

control order A control order is an order made by the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom to restrict an individual's liberty for the purpose of "protecting members of the public from a risk of terrorism". Its definition and power were provided by Parliament in ...

, itself a more politically palatable means of limiting the freedom of a suspect without the need to provide a court of law with ''prima facie'' evidence of any wrongdoing.

United States

The United States currently uses indefinite detention without trial—known under various names as internment,

civil commitment Involuntary commitment, civil commitment, or involuntary hospitalization/hospitalisation, or informally in Britain sectioning, being sectioned, commitment, or being committed, is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qual ...

, preventive detention or administrative detention—to hold people who fall within a few narrow categories, including the mentally ill (

involuntary commitment Involuntary commitment, civil commitment, or involuntary hospitalization/hospitalisation, or informally in Britain sectioning, being sectioned, commitment, or being committed, is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qual ...

) and " sexually violent predators", though the right of

still applies, and some determinations regarding mental illness and sexual dangerousness are made by juries. During

, the United States detained over 100,000

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...

s in

internment camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...

; smaller numbers of

German Americans German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

and

Italian Americans Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

were interned. The constitutionality of Japanese internment was controversially upheld by the Supreme Court's 1944 decision in '' Korematsu v. United States'', which has since been overturned. The United States also utilizes administrative detention as a counter-terrorism measure, and as a means to control illegal immigration. There are approximately 100,000 persons in removal proceedings at any one time, and about 31,000 held in detention during these proceedings. Following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, the Patriot Act was passed. The Act expanded the authority of law enforcement agencies to use administrative detention for the stated purpose of fighting

in the United States and abroad. Under the Act, any person (

citizen Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality ...

or alien) suspected of terrorist connections may be administratively detained for up to seven days without the benefit of a ''

'' proceeding. The

Attorney General of the United States The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. The attorney general acts as the principal legal advisor to the president of the ...

, at his discretion, may extend this seven-day period to six months, and this extension itself may be renewed indefinitely – legally creating the possibility of lifetime imprisonment without ever facing charges. One of the criticisms of the Patriot Act is that the Attorney General's decision is not subject to any judicial review, unlike the situation in other democratic countries which have similar administrative detention laws. As part of the War on Terror, and particularly during and after the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC), the conquest of Afghanistan by the Macedonian Empire * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan, a series of campaigns in ...

, U.S. forces captured hundreds of alleged terrorists, who were subsequently detained without trial at the

Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...

. The United States initially refused to grant these detainees

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

status, holding that they were illegal

enemy combatant Enemy combatant is a term for a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict, used by the U.S. government and media during the War on Terror. Usually enemy combatants are members of t ...

s because they did not meet the requirements set down by the

Third Geneva Convention The Third Geneva Convention, relative to the treatment of prisoners of war, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was first adopted in 1929, but significantl ...

. Of the 775 detainees incarcerated at Guantanamo, 420 have been released without charge, and only one has been tried and convicted. U.S. authorities claim that they intend to put 60 to 80 more on trial.

Criticism by human rights groups

Administrative detention practices have come under severe criticism, with critics claiming that it breaches human rights.

believes that administrative detention breaches Article 9 of the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom ...

(ICCPR) which "makes clear that no-one should be subjected to arbitrary detention and that deprivation of liberty must be based on grounds and procedures established by law". The ICCPR does allow a government, under narrow circumstances, such as a public emergency threatening the life of a nation, to temporarily derogate from its obligation not to engage in arbitrary detention. Amnesty International is also concerned that

prisoners of conscience A prisoner of conscience (POC) is anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, or political views. The term also refers to those who have been imprisoned or persecuted for the nonviolent expression of their conscienti ...

are being "held solely for the non-violent exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association". The

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

has created the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the issue. One of the issues the group has focused on is the determination whether a detention is arbitrary or not – which is not as clear-cut in the case of administrative detention as it is in the case of criminal arrest. The group has proposed certain guidelines to aid in such determination. For example, it has suggested that any deprivations of liberty that violate the

freedom of association Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline membe ...

must be deemed arbitrary. Based on these guidelines, the group has condemned countries who have used long-term administrative detention when the detainees were held for the mere fact of belonging to an "illegal organization".

References

{{Social class Illegal immigration Imprisonment and detention Human rights abuses