Articles 3–11: Life, Liberty and a Fair Trial

Articles 3 to 11 protect the person against abuse of power, beginning with Article 3, which guarantees the right to life, liberty and security of person, echoing earlier revolutionary declarations. Article 4 bans slavery and the slave trade in all their forms, and Article 5 forbids torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Articles 6 to 8 guarantee recognition as a person before the law, equality before the law, and a remedy when rights are violated.

Article 9 forbids arbitrary arrest, detention or exile, carrying forward the principle of habeas corpus. Article 10 promises a fair and public hearing by an independent tribunal, and Article 11 affirms the presumption of innocence and bans punishing people for acts that were not crimes when they were committed. Many of these articles were direct responses to the crimes of the 1930s and 1940s, when regimes imprisoned people without trial and tortured opponents. Together they describe the legal protections that make other rights secure.