The Right to Liberty and Security of the Person as a Basic Right Guarantee

The right to liberty and security of the person contemplates individual liberty in its classic sense; "physical liberty of the person". It is concerned with the deprivation of the liberty and not with mere restrictions on freedom of movement nor with treatment or conditions. The distinction between the right to liberty and security of the person and freedom of movement is not always easy to identify since the difference is intensity of the intervention and not one of nature or substance. In determining whether the level of restraint involved amounts to a deprivation of the liberty, a whole range of criteria such as the type, duration, effects and manner of implementation of the measure in question should be taken account. The right to liberty and security of the person is one of the fundamental principles of a democratic society and that is why it has been a subject to many international human rights instruments such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, European Convention on Human Rights, Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, other regional human rights instruments and constitutions. The right to liberty and security of the person is guaranteed in the 19th article of the Turkish Constitution. Article 19 of the Turkish Constitution is designed alike the article 5th of the European Convention on Human Rights. After establishing the right to liberty and security of the person, they both have a list of six types of situations in which deprivation of liberty is permissible. These are; the lawful detention of a person after conviction by a competent court, detention for non-compliance with obligations, detention on remand, detention of minors for the purpose of educational supervision or the purpose of bringing him before the competent legal authority, the lawful detention of persons for the prevention of the spreading of infectious diseases, of persons of unsound mind, alcoholics or drug addicts or vagrants and finally the lawful arrest or detention of a person to prevent his effecting an unauthorized entry into the country or of a person against whose action is being taken with a view to deportation or extradition. These two provisions also have two overriding requirements. The first requirement is that any deprivation of liberty must be in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law. The second requirement is that it must be lawful. The provisions of the article 5th of the ECHR and article 19 of the Turkish Constitution also provide certain guarantees to persons deprived of their liberty; to notification of the reasons adduced by the authorities, to take proceedings to test the lawfulness of detention, to compensation where there has been a violation of the Article and for those deprived of their liberty under article 5/1-c and 19/7 to be brought promptly before a judge and to trial within a reasonable time or to release pending trial. Here can be said that there is some replication with the provisions of the right to fair trial, but the right to liberty and security of the person requires there to be special diligence on the part of authorities in respect of persons who have been deprived of their liberty. Keywords: Liberty and security of the person, Habeas Corpus, detention, rights of the detainee, compensation.