The UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries plans to include an assessment of human rights challenges posed by the operations of private security companies in detention centres and prisons in its 2017 report to the UN General Assembly. To assist in the Working Group’s preparatory work, the GDP provided a briefing on various […]
Special Reports & Working PapersThematic reports and scholarly working papers produced wholly or in part by the Global Detention Project (GDP) and written by GDP staff members, associated researchers, or partner organisations.
Thematic reports and scholarly working papers produced wholly or in part by the Global Detention Project (GDP) and written by GDP staff members, associated researchers, or partner organisations.
Detention, Deportation, and Waiting: Toward a Theory of Migrant Detainability: GDP Working Paper No. 18
The global expansion of deportation regimes has spurred an analogous expansion of migrant detention. This GDP Working Paper situates the analysis of immigration detention in the framework of contemporary critical theory, interrogating the economy of different conditionalities that undergird the distinct categories of migrants who are subjected to detention power. […]
Is Infiltrating Migrant Prisons the Most Effective Way to Challenge Detention Regimes? The Case of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance: GDP Working Paper No. 17
The authors highlight efforts by undocumented youth in the United States to “infiltrate” immigration detention centres to argue that civil disobedience, a strategy often ignored by allies and advocates of immigrants, can be an effective tool to counter growing detention and deportation systems. […]
The Constitutionalisation of Immigration Detention: Between EU Law and the European Convention on Human Rights: GDP Working Paper #15
This paper argues that the increasing regulation of immigration detention in EU law has led to more constitutional protection for detainees, however some new regulations are resulting in more people being detained. […]
The Impact of Investigative Journalism on U.S. Immigration Detention Reform
An award-winning New York Times reporter reflects on the challenges journalists face in covering immigration detention and the failure of reform efforts in the United States. […]
Detention of Migrant Children in Switzerland: A Status Report
How many children are placed in immigration detention in Switzerland? Where are they detained? What are the conditions of their detention? Is this information even available? In this Special Report, the child rights NGO Terre des hommes argues that there are gaps in Switzerland treatment of children in immigration detention. To complete the report, Terre des hommes commissioned the the Global Detention Project to survey children detention practices in Swiss cantons. […]
GDP Annual Report 2014-2015
In December 2015, the Global Detention Project completed its first fiscal year as an independent association after operating for nearly eight years at the Graduate Institute. This Annual Report details the origins and evolution of the GDP and its efforts to confront the growing use of immigration detention.
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Can Inspection Produce Meaningful Change in Immigration Detention?
In this GDP Working Paper, an inspector from the UK Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons discusses tensions between pushing for short-term progress in the treatment of immigration detainees and long-term reforms. The HMIP focuses on treatment and conditions, not challenging the system, even if immigration detention arguably lacks legitimacy in a way that criminal imprisonment does not. What amounts to “effective” inspection and can inspection promote meaningful change?
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Who Is Responsible for Harm in Immigration Detention? Models of Accountability for Private Corporations
This paper argues that private corporations can and should be held responsible for structural injustices that take place in immigration detention regimes in which they operate. It draws on literature from business ethics to evaluate various ethical arguments for assessing corporate responsibility, emphasising models that may lead to the prevention of harm and suffering. In […]
Border Criminologies: Assessing the Changing Architecture of Crime and Punishment
This paper examines contributions from the nascent field of “Border Criminologies” in assessing the changing architecture of crime and punishment, focusing primarily on immigration detention.
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