The Practical Challenge of Respecting Fundamental Safeguards During the G20 Summit in Hamburg

The following article addresses the practical challenges of respecting fundamental safeguards during the G20 summit in Hamburg, which took place in July 2017. It first addresses the specific situation and challenges a major event poses for the respect of fundamental rights of persons being arrested. Subsequently, relevant standards of the National Agency for the Prevention of Torture and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture related to police custody will be presented. The article then takes a closer look at the challenges, which presented themselves in Hamburg with a focus on structural and material conditions of the mass detention centre, access to a lawyer as well as prompt judicial hearings. The case of Hamburg shows how practice differed from the theoretical concept the mass detention centre was based on and might contribute to a better protection of fundamental rights on the occasion of such events in the future.