A/HRC/20/24 imprisonment shall be informed at the time of arrest in a language they understand of their rights and how to avail themselves of those rights. The Body of Principles furthermore provides that all detained persons have the right to assistance, free of charge if necessary, of an interpreter and a legal counsel and a prompt medical examination. They also have the right to communicate with the outside world, in particular with family and counsel. 18. Article 9, paragraph 4, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that anyone who is deprived of his/her liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that the court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his/her detention and order his/her release if the detention is not lawful. The Human Rights Committee in its general comment No. 8 stated that this provision is applicable to all deprivations of liberty, including immigration control. Article 16, paragraph 8, of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families provides the same guarantees for migrant workers and members of their families who are deprived of their liberty, and also provides the right to have the assistance, if necessary without cost to them, of an interpreter, if they cannot understand or speak the language used. Such guarantees are important in first instance, but also at the appeal level. 19. At the regional level, the right to take proceedings before a court in order to decide on the lawfulness of detention is provided by article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples‟ Rights, article 7 of the American Convention on Human Rights, article 14 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights and article 5, paragraph 4, of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Special Rapporteur has been made aware of several instances where that right has been restricted, inter alia through long delays between the beginning of detention and the date of the first review procedure. 20. Migrants who have been detained have the right to communicate with the authorities of their home country, through consular or diplomatic authorities. Article 16, paragraph 7, of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families provides that when a migrant worker or a member of his or her family is detained, the consular or diplomatic authorities of his or her State of origin or of a State representing the interests of that State shall, if he or she so requests, be informed without delay of his or her arrest or detention and of the reasons therefor; and the person concerned shall have the right to communicate with the said authorities. Article 36, paragraph 1 (b), of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations states that, if requested, the competent authorities of the receiving State shall, without delay, inform the consular post of the sending State if, within its consular district, a national of that State is detained. However, migrants who are detained need to be made aware of their right to communicate with consular or diplomatic authorities, in order to use it. The Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment provides that when a foreigner is detained, he or she shall be promptly informed of his right to communicate by appropriate means with a consular post or the diplomatic mission of the State of which he is a national or otherwise entitled to receive such communication. The Special Rapporteur would however like to stress that consular authorities should only be contacted if this is requested by the detained migrant. In particular, asylum-seekers should not be brought to the attention of their consular authorities without their knowledge and consent. 5. Duration of administrative detention of migrants 21. The Special Rapporteur has received information indicating that long-term administrative detention of migrants, sometimes over a year, is frequent. He wishes to emphasize that the duration of administrative detention of a migrant should be as short as possible, and the decision to keep the person detained must be reviewed periodically. The 6