UN condemns UK's indefinite IPP imprisonment as psychological torture

The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a 16‑page report denouncing the United Kingdom’s Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences as "arbitrary" and a form of psychological torture. The document says the indeterminate nature of IPP terms violates the rule of law principle of lex certa and causes severe mental anguish because prisoners do not know when they will be released.

The report was prompted by a complaint on behalf of five men who have collectively served 84 years under IPP sentences for relatively minor offences. The UN concluded that all five are entitled to compensation and other reparations. The complaint also included a letter from former justice secretary David Lammy, who called the practice a "grave injustice" that inflicts "horrendous" mental trauma.

Although IPP sentences were abolished in 2012 following a European Court of Human Rights ruling, they were not applied retroactively, leaving more than 2,500 prisoners still detained without a definite release date. The UN’s condemnation adds international pressure on the British government to address the ongoing indefinite detentions.