Mallorca Rules on the Illegality of Detention

Abstract

As a foundation of fundamental rights and out of respect for human dignity, they have been proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which came into force on January 3, 1976, as well as in other international documents. Convinced that the effective realization of these rights requires their formulation into rules, it is recognized that criminal justice is a tool of state power that fundamentally affects individual rights. In an effort to balance the demands of effective criminal justice while respecting the individual guarantees of those whose rights are impacted by criminal proceedings, it has been recommended to designate the conclusions of this work as the "Mallorca Rules." These constitute the United Nations Minimum Rules for Criminal Procedure.