Arbitrary arrest and detention

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

Arbitrary arrest and detention
Arbitrarily arresting and detaining persons contradicts rule of law established in democracies as well as habeas corpus and is thereafter illegal in those regimes. It is often a characteristic of dictatorships or police states, which may also engage in forced disappearance.

Virtually all individuals who are arbitrarily arrested are given absolutely no explanation as to why they are being arrested, and they are not shown any arrest warrant. The vast majority of arbitrarily arrested individuals are held incommunicado and their whereabouts are concealed from their family, associates, the public population and the open trial courts. Many individuals who are arbitrarily arrested and detained suffer physical and/or psychological torture during interrogation, as well as extrajudicial punishment and other abuses in the hands of those detaining them.

International law
Arbitrarily depriving an individual of their liberty is strictly prohibited by the United Nations' division for human rights. Article 55 of the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court declares such a practice by government a major crime. Article 9 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights decrees that "no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile" ; that is, no individual, regardless of circumstances, is to be deprived of their liberty or exiled 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.