The right to personal liberty is one of the oldest recognized rights in liberal democracies, which raises fundamental constitutional questions about the use of detention as an immigration measure. However, as this GDP Working Paper highlights, in common law countries, lengthy immigration detention on a large scale has become the norm and is largely regarded as constitutional. […]
Other publications
Feb 2026
Detention BlogFeb 2026
Detention BlogEU: New Return Regulation Threatens to Significantly Expand Detention, Warn UN Special Procedures
Feb 2026
Transparency InitiativeDjibouti: The GDP Submits Information Request to the National Human Rights Commission
Feb 2026
Transparency InitiativeMauritania: The GDP Submits Information Request to the National Human Rights Commission
Jan 2026
Detention BlogThailand: Detention and Coerced Returns of Vietnamese Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Jan 2026
Submissions & RecommendationsLithuania: Follow-Up Report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
Jan 2026
Detention BlogAustralia: UN Experts Raise Serious Concerns Regarding Country’s Migrant Detention System
Dec 2025
Submissions & RecommendationsMalaysia: Joint Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Dec 2025
Submissions & Recommendations
