Right to Liberty and Security of Person
Right to Liberty and Security of Person

Summary/Abstract: The key purpose of the right to liberty and security of person is to prevent arbitrary or unjustified deprivations of liberty. Exceptions to this right must be interpreted strictly. The distinction between a deprivation of, and a restriction upon, liberty is merely one of degree or intensity and not one of nature or substance. "In order to determine whether someone has been "deprived of his liberty" within the meaning of Article 5, the starting point must be his concrete situation and account must be taken of a whole range of criteria such as the type, duration, effects and manner of implementation of the measure in question". The requirements regarding the lawfulness of the deprivation of liberty and the prohibition of arbitrariness do not apply only to deprivations of liberty in criminal cases, but to all deprivations of liberty, such as, for example, mental illness, vagrancy, drug and alcohol addiction, etc. According to ECtHR case law, these situations include confinement in a psychiatric institution or a social protection institution, holding individuals in the airport transit zones, interrogations in police stations, the police stopping and searching individuals, house arrest, etc.

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