Chapter 5 • Human Rights and Arrest, Pre-Trial and Administrative Detention 4.6 Detention in order to prevent flight In the Mukong case, the Human Rights Committee made it clear that a detention on remand is legitimate under article 9(1) if lawful and necessary in the particular case, in order to prevent flight, for instance.55 Article 5(1)(c) of the European Convention, too, foresees the possibility lawfully to detain a person “to prevent his ... fleeing after having” committed an offence. The risk of absconding as a possible justification for continued detention will be further dealt with below. As a general principle, liberty is the rule and detention the exception. Deprivation of a person’s liberty must at all times be objectively justified in that the reasonableness of the grounds of detention must be assessed from the point of view of an objective observer and based on facts and not merely on subjective suspicion. The most common grounds for a lawful judicial deprivation of liberty are: l after conviction by a competent, independent and impartial court of law; l on reasonable suspicion of having committed an offence or in order to prevent the person from doing so; l in order to prevent a person from fleeing after having committed a crime. 4.7 Administrative detention For the purposes of this Manual, administrative detention is detention ordered by the Executive even though there exists, as should be the case under international human rights law, an a posteriori remedy to challenge the lawfulness of the deprivation of liberty before the courts. The power of administrative and ministerial authorities to order detentions is highly controversial, and some experts believe it should be abolished.56 It is important to be aware, however, that this form of detention is not outlawed by international law, even though it is surrounded by some important safeguards. According to General Comment No. 8 of the Human Rights Committee, article 9(1) “is applicable to all deprivations of liberty, whether in criminal cases or in other cases such as, for example, mental illness, vagrancy, drug addiction, educational purposes, immigration control, etc.”.57 It follows that article 9(1) covers all cases of administrative detention. However, whilst some other provisions of article 9 “are only applicable to persons against whom criminal charges are brought”, others, such as, 55 See Communication No. 458/1991, A. W. Mukong v. Cameroon (Views adopted on 21 July 1994), in UN doc. GAOR, A/49/40 (vol. II), p. 181, para. 9.8. 56 See e.g. the view expressed by Mr. Louis Joinet in para. 18 of his Report on the practice of administrative detention (UN doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1990/29). 57 United Nations Compilation of General Comments, p. 117, para. 1. Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers 175