Arbitrary arrest and detention is thearrest anddetention of an individual in a case in which there is no likelihood orevidence that they committed acrime againstlegal statute, or in which there has been no properdue process of law or order.[1][2] Arbitrary arrest and detention is similar to but legally distinct fromwrongful detention, which is broader in scope and does not involve arrest.[3]
Virtually all individuals who are arbitrarily arrested are given no explanation as to why they are being arrested, and they are not shown anyarrest warrant.[4] Depending on the social context, many or the vast majority of arbitrarily arrested individuals may be heldincommunicado and their whereabouts can be concealed from their family, associates, the public population and opentrial courts.[5][6]
Arbitrarily depriving an individual of theirliberty is prohibited underinternational human rights law. Article 9 of the 1948Universal Declaration of Human Rights decrees that "no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile";[7] that is, no individual, regardless of circumstances, is to be deprived of their liberty orexiled from their country without having first committed an actual criminal offense against a legal statute, and the government cannot deprive an individual of their liberty without proper due process of law. As well, theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights specifies the protection from arbitrary arrest and detention by the Article 9.[8] The implementation of the Covenants is monitored by theUnited Nations human rights treaty bodies.
Since 2020, Azerbaijan has detained over 160 Armenians, including civilians,[10] former soldiers, and leaders[11][12] of Nagorno-Karabakh.[13][14] It is a common practice for Azerbaijan to arbitrarily detain civilians.[15] Arbitrary arrests and detentions of Armenians have occurred within territories acquired by Azerbaijan following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, withininternationally recognized Armenian territory,[16] and within areas of the Armenia-Azerbaijani border.[10][17]
A fact-finding mission jointly conducted by multiple human rights organizations concluded, "in all documented instances of civilian detention...Azerbaijani authorities failed to provide justifiable grounds, rendering these detentions arbitrary under both IHL [International Humanitarian Law] and IHRL [International Human Rights Law]."[18] Multiple human rights organizations and experts condemned Azerbaijan for its detention of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh,[19][20][21][22] describing the actions as a "war crime,"[23] illegal,[24] or considering the charges to be fabricated to supportsham trials.[25][26][27][28]
The European Parliament, Nobel Prize laureates, business leaders, former heads of state, and humanitarians[29] have called on Azerbaijan to release Armenians who have been arrested.[30][31] Other human rights advocates stated that the incarceration of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, including their leaders, is genocidal[13][32][33] or aims to legitimize theethnic cleansing of the region.[34] A fact-finding mission carried out byFreedom House and other human rights organizations concluded that — together with other actions — Azerbaijan’s practice of arbitrary arrest and detention of civilians “meet the criteria forethnic cleansing as understood in the context of the former Yugoslavia conflict.”[35]While the constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, its practice is quite common.[38] Prisoners are beaten and raped by police.[38]Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture alleges that four youths accused of stealing were tortured by police in 2011.[38] Abuses at theKassa Island military prison in 2009 reportedly includedcastration.[38] Amnesty has two reports of the use of torture in 2011: in February a man inMamou was taken to the local police station after setting up roadblocks and beaten while handcuffed.[39] In April a man was arrested inDixinn and beaten at a local station.[39]
Torture is used by "judicial police officers" to coerce confessions from detainees.[40]: 14
On 19 February 2025, the national coordinator of the Forum of the social forces of Guinea, Abdoul Sacko, was kidnapped and tortured.[41] In June 2025, theLaywer's Order of Guinea boycotted hearings for two weeks and their members left national institutions in which they served in reaction to the kidnapping and torture of Mohamed Traoré, the Order's ex-bâtonnier and a critic of Doumbouya.[42]Iran has been widely criticized for arbitrary arrests and detentions, particularly of journalists, activists,dual nationals, and political opponents. Human rights organizations likeAmnesty International[43] andHuman Rights Watch[44] have repeatedly reported cases of individuals being detained without due process, fair trials, or clear charges.[45]
Iran has been accused of arresting foreign and dual nationals (especially from Western countries) to use them as bargaining chips in political negotiations. Political activists, human rights defenders, and journalists often face imprisonment on vague charges like "spreading propaganda against the system" or "acting against national security." Ethnic and religious minorities, such asKurds,Baha'is, andSunnis, are disproportionately arrested.
In mid-August 2020, protests erupted in theKurdistan region ofIraq concerning corruption, the improvement of public services, and pay owed to government employees. In response, the regional government arbitrarily arrested activists and journalists covering the protests under the pretext of preserving “national security”. Some were detained anywhere from several days to six months.[46]
The Constitution and statutes of Mauritania prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention, but authorities in 2011 did not observe these prohibitions. In some cases, authorities arbitrarily arrested and detained protesters and journalists.[47]: page: 5
Human rights and other observers accused the government of exceeding the legal limits for pretrial detention in 2011. Security forces, at times, arrested demonstrators engaged in sit-ins, marches, or rallies, and held them longer than the regulations allow. On 29 September, the media reported that following a violent protest inNouakchott against the national registration initiative, security forces entered private residences without warrants and arrested approximately 20 individuals.[47]: page: 5
By law, a minor may not be held for more than six months while awaiting trial. Nevertheless, there were reports in 2011 that a large number of individuals, including minors, remained in pretrial detention for extended periods due to judicial ineptitude.[47]: page: 6An arrest is arbitrary when there is insufficient evidence to condemn an individual, and when there is no legal basis to the arrest. The law states that anyone that is detained without legal basis or on the foundation of insufficient evidence should be released, however the authorities of Mozambique have that responsibility, and have been found to not follow this law strictly.[48]
According toAmnesty International, the Mozambican police have been found to arrest citizens without sufficient reason or evidence to do so.[49] Many detainees in detention centres are being held while their case is still being investigated. They were arrested on the suspicion of theft, and some are held in these pre-trial facilities for almost a year, while police investigate the case, providing the assumption that the arrests were arbitrary and on suspicious grounds.[50]
The Mozambican law also states that an arrest is arbitrary if it does not comply with the procedures for arrest set out in the Criminal Procedure Code.[51][52] Amnesty International has documented arrests that do not comply with these procedures due to failing to inform those being arrested and detaining their rights.[48][49] Violating a detainee's rights can include not allowing them to see a lawyer, forcing detainees to sign documents, or beating or ill-treating detainees to force them to confess.[48][53]Since the beginning of 2021, prominent human rights defenders and democracy activists were charged with the possibility of more than 100 years each on criminal charges for their involvement in pro-democracy activism. The leading figures of the2020–2021 Thai protests that called for reforms to the monarchy,Arnon Nampa,Panupong Jadnok,Parit Chiwarak,Jatupat (Pai Dao Din),Panusaya (Rung), andBenja Apan, were all detained awaiting trial in 2021 in a series of detainments and releases. Some were imprisoned accumulatively for more than 200 days after Prime MinisterPrayut Chan-o-cha issued a declaration in November 2020 to charge protesters with offenses under all laws, includinglèse-majesté.[54]
In 2022, there were multiple cases of systematic harassment and detention against young monarchy-reform activists, such as that ofTantawan Tuatulanon, who protested her imprisonment by going on ahunger strike for 37 days. Most activists who mentioned the monarchy were also forced to wearelectronic monitoring anklets by the criminal court.[55] More than 15dissidents are still imprisoned to this day.[56]Between 2015 and 2017, the United States sent a number of detainees of various nationalities, some only suspects, fromGuantanamo Bay detention camp to the UAE. According to US officials, the agreement reached with UAE to accept these prisoners did not include their continued imprisonment. By 2020, nineteen remained in detention in often undisclosed locations, in harsh conditions, and with little access to outside communication. In at least one case, a detainee was sent to a facility reported by the Associated Press to be "a notorious prison rife with torture". One Afghani detainee was returned home after more than three years in UAE prisons, dying four months after his release. He recounted harsh, inhumane treatment in UAE, describing it as "mental torture".[57]
Since October 2020, UAE authorities have, on the basis of religious background, detained, at times incommunicado, at least four Pakistani men and deported at least six others. Reports of UAE authorities arbitrarily targeting Shia residents, whether Lebanese, Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani, or otherwise, often emerge at times of increased regional tensions.[58]On 18 November 2024, Dubai police arrested a Kyrgyz dissident, Kudaibergen uluu, who was visiting the Emirate to meet other activists of Kyrgyzstan. He was informed that the Kyrgyzstan government had requested for his extradition. Kudaibergen uluu was released within 24 hours, but was kept under investigation. On 3 January 2025, he was arrested again by Dubai police, stayed for half a day, based on another extradition request from Kyrgyz government over bogus charges of fraud. The new extradition request was being considered by the UAE. Kudaibergen uluu, who lives in exile in the US, was trapped in Dubai and unable to travel back because of his missing passport.[59] A joint letter from human rights organizations, including International partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), Freedom for Eurasia, Freedom Now, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, called on the UAE to not force Kudaibergen uluu to return to Kyrgyzstan, where he is likely to face, arbitrary detention, torture, unfair trial, ill treatment and other human right abuses. They warned the UAE to ensure his safety, liberty and to coordinate with the US to send him back to his family.[60]
Arbitrary arrest and detention are not uncommon in theUnited States. In 2006,Amnesty International condemned theBush administration for "years of arbitrary and indefinite detention" at theGuantanamo Bay detention camp.[61] Amnesty International also reported in 2018 that the average daily population of arbitrarily detained immigrants in the United States was projected to reach 47,000 people by 2019. It further reported that 15 LGBTQ people interviewed had been arbitrarily detained in the United States without parole for periods ranging from several months to 2.5 years.[62] In 2025, the widespread arbitrary detention of European and Canadian tourists in the United States, including the Canadian actressJasmine Mooney,[63] lead to increased fears abroad about traveling to the country.[64] In May 2025, Amnesty International reported that the United States had arbitrarily detained asylum seekers and violated their rights to due process and their rights to legal resources. It reported that immigrants from Venezuela were disproportionately targeted by arbitrary arrest and human rights violations such as physical abuse by authorities.[65] In July 2025, a United States citizen and United States Army veteran named George Retes was arbitrarily detained byICE for three days.[66]
The trials involve eight political and military leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh which was ethnically cleansed by Azerbaijan's ten-month-long blockade followed by military aggression in September of 2023, when 120,000 Armenians were forced to flee to Armenia.
More than a hundred Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, 23 of whom are formally identified and therefore personally defended by lawyers, are still imprisoned to this day, in arbitrary, degrading and inhuman conditions of detention... The illegal and brutal detention of Armenian civilians and prisoners of war does not date back to September 2023, or even to the 2020 war. Azerbaijan is regularly challenged by the European Court of Human Rights on this issue.
Ian Moss, a former chief of staff for the State Department's Guantanamo envoy, insisted that, 'We wanted these individuals after they were released to have a fresh start in life. It wasn't part of the deal that they be incarcerated.'