Honorary Co-Chairs
The Honorable Václav Havel
The Most Reverend Desmond M. Tutu
FREEDOM NOW JOINS THE UNITED NATIONS AND THOMSON REUTERS IN
LAUNCHING THE UN WORKING GROUP ON ARBITRARY DETENTION
DOCUMENT SEARCH WEBSITE
Freedom Now is excited to announce the launch of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention Document Search website – a free to use searchable database of legal case opinions.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) is a UN body composed of human
rights experts that considers individual cases of arbitrary detention and renders decisions as to
whether there have been breaches of international human rights law. This searchable database is
a joint pro bono effort between The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR), Freedom Now, and Thomson Reuters.
The OHCHR officially launches this database today while it hosts a Commemorative Event for
the 20th Anniversary of the UNWGAD. This one day conference, which is being held in Paris,
will include panel discussions about the UNWGAD and its contribution to upholding human
rights law. Panelists will include Freedom Now’s founder Jared Genser and former Freedom
Now client, Mr. Haithem Al-Maleh, who was imprisoned in Syria earlier this year.
For the first time, this database will allow users to search most efficiently through UNWGAD
opinions. Freedom Now believes that the UNWGAD Document Search website will serve as an
invaluable tool for researchers, lawyers, and human rights activists allowing users to search
UNWGAD opinions by country, human rights articles and instruments, type of case, and date.
The database is available in English, French, and Spanish and is expected to include other
languages at a later time.
Start your search: www.unwgaddatabase.org. And to see what Freedom Now has been doing,
please go to our website at www.freedom-now.org.
Executive Director Maran Turner said, “As an organization that utilizes the UN Working Group
on Arbitrary Detention mechanism and values the contribution this body makes to international
human rights, we are thrilled to work with the United Nations and Thomson Reuters in
developing this amazing resource.”
Freedom Now would like to thank Hogan Lovells US LLP and DLA Piper whose lawyers
contributed their time and talents pro bono to work with Freedom Now on this project.
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