CRINMAIL 793 - Special Edition on Torture

29 June 2006 - CRINMAIL 793
Special Edition on Torture

 

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- UNIVERSAL PROTECTION MECHANISMS: United Nations, Inter-American System, African Union, Council of Europe

- UNITED NATIONS: International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

- CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE: Entry into Force of Optional Protocol Following Ratification by Twenty States [news] 

- US DETENTION CAMP: The Children of Guantanamo [news]

- IRAN: Human Rights Watch Calls on Council to Remove Rights Abuser from Delegation [news]

- AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Combating Torture – A Manual for Action [handbook]

- LAOS: Fate Unknown – Ethnic Hmong Children at Risk [news]

- RESOURCES: Publications and Websites

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Your submissions are welcome if you are working in the area of child rights. To contribute, email us at [email protected]. Adobe Acrobat is required for viewing some of the documents, and if required can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html If you do not receive this email in html format, you will not be able to see some hyperlinks in the text. At the end of each item we have therefore provided a full URL linking to a web page where further information is available.

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UNIVERSAL PROTECTION MECHANISMS: United Nations, Inter-American System, African Union, Council of Europe

International Conventions which stipulate the fundamental right to protection from torture  have been widely ratified in the United Nations, Inter-American, African Union and European Union systems on human rights. However, children all over the world continue to be subjected to torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and punishment. In the week of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture CRIN has compiled illustrative examples of how States are violating international standards, some of which include:

What The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says about torture:

Article 37
States Parties shall ensure that:
(a)   No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age;

(b)   No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;

(c)   Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child's best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances;

(d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt  access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action.

 

Cases in the Inter-American Court relating to children and the Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture

Guatemala: Villagrán Morales and others  
The first case involving children was brought before the Inter American Court on Human Rights (ICHR) in 2000). The case - known as "Bosques de San Nicolas" - is about the brutal murder of five Guatemalan street children in June 1990 which involved at least two national police officers. The tortured and mutilated bodies of the five youth, aged between 15 and 20, were found dumped in an isolated area of Guatemala City. Some of the children had their eyes burned out; others their tongues severed. All had been shot in the head...

On 2 December 1999, just over nine years after the crimes were committed, the ICHR condemned the State of Guatemala for violating a series of articles of both the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter American Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Torture.

Source: The Human Rights Tribune

Other cases

What The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child says about torture:

Article 16: Protection Against Child Abuse and Torture

1. States Parties to the present Charter shall take specific legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and especially physical or mental injury or abuse, neglect or maltreatment including sexual abuse, while in the care of the child.

2. Protective measures under this Article shall include effective procedures for the establishment of special monitoring units to provide necessary support for the child and for those who have the care of the child, as well as other forms of prevention and for identification, reporting referral investigation, treatment, and follow-up of instances of child abuse and neglect.

 

The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The Convention, which entered into force on 1 February 1989, provides for the setting up of an international committee empowered to visit all places where persons are deprived of their liberty by a public authority. The committee, composed of independent experts, may make recommendations and suggest improvements in order to strengthen, if necessary, the protection of persons visited from torture and from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This Convention has been ratified by 47 countries (46 Member States of the Council of Europe and one non-member State; Montenegro).

Ratifications

For specific cases involving torture, see also the homepage of the European Court of Human Rights.

The European Court of Human Rights provides a Portal which provides free online access to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, the European Commission of Human Rights and the Committee of Ministers. The judgments, decisions, resolutions and reports of these bodies are held in a database and can be consulted via a sophisticated search screen.

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8999&flag=news

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UNITED NATIONS: International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

In its resolution 52/149 of 12 December 1997, the General Assembly proclaimed 26 June as the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

This year’s observance of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture also marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture.

In commemoration of 25 years of funding assistance to torture victims, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will launch a new book – Rebuilding Lives.

Rebuilding Lives presents the experiences of torture survivors and the efforts of those who work to rehabilitate them. It focuses on the work of the Fund and the efforts of the non-governmental organisations it has supported over the past twenty-five years to assist and rehabilitate victims of torture.

The book includes five illustrated articles on current victim support projects in Australia , Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Pakistan and Rwanda, contributed by local journalists of those countries.

The book also examines the legal and medical definitions of torture, how and why it happens, the impact it has on victims, what makes torture different from other human rights violations, as well as ways in which it can be effectively treated and combated.

Since 1998 the four main United Nations organs dealing with torture, namely the Board of Trustees of the Fund, the Committee against Torture, the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the High Commissioner for Human Rights issue a joint declaration to commemorate the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=8989

For more information, contact:
United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture
c/o United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Trust Funds Unit/Support Services Branch,
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 917 93 15; Fax: +41 22 917 90 17
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/funds/torture/index.htm


Speeches on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

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CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE: Entry into Force of New Optional Protocol [news]

[GENEVA, 22 June 2006] - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour welcomed the entry into force last week of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as a milestone in the fight against torture and impunity.

"The Optional Protocol is a fundamental safeguard which will provide fuller means to make the promise of the Convention against Torture a practical reality", she said. "The monitoring mechanisms, both national and international, established in the Optional Protocol are critical new methods of ensuring the protection of detainees around the world against all forms of mistreatment".

The Optional Protocol, adopted on 18 December 2002 by the General Assembly, strengthens the Convention against Torture by establishing an international Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture with a mandate to visit places of detention in States parties. The Protocol also requires States parties to set up national preventive mechanisms, which are also to be provided with access to places of detention and prisoners held there. Following these visits, the Sub-Committee and the national preventive mechanisms will make recommendations for improvements in the treatment and the conditions of persons deprived of their liberty, and work with relevant authorities to ensure the implementation of the recommendations.

The treaty is entering into force following the accession of Bolivia and Honduras on 23 May 2006. The other 18 States that have also ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol are Albania, Argentina, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Georgia, Liberia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Paraguay, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and Uruguay.

"The 20 States that have signed up to the Protocol so far have expressed their clear commitment to the elimination of torture, and their willingness to do what it takes to stamp out all mistreatment of detainees", she said. "This is truly a milestone in efforts to fight torture and impunity. I call on all other States to become party to the Convention against Torture and the Protocol. We have waited a long time for this treaty - let us now all work together to make it effective worldwide."

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8835&flag=news

Further information

 

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US DETENTION CAMP: The Children of Guantanamo [news]

[28 May 2006] - The 'IoS' revealed last month that more than 60 of the detainees of the US camp were under 18 at the time of their capture, some as young as 14.

The notorious US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay has been hit by fresh allegations of human rights abuses, with claims that dozens of children were sent there - some as young as 14 years old.

Lawyers in London estimate that more than 60 detainees held at the terrorists' prison camp were boys under 18 when they were captured. They include at least 10 detainees still held at the US base in Cuba who were 14 or 15 when they were seized - including child soldiers who were held in solitary confinement, repeatedly interrogated and allegedly tortured. The disclosures threaten to plunge the Bush administration into a fresh row with Britain, its closest ally in the war on terror, only days after the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, repeated his demands for the closure of the detention facility.

It was, he said, a "symbol of injustice". Whitehall sources said the new allegations, from the London-based legal rights group Reprieve, directly contradicted the Bush administration's assurances to the UK that no juveniles had been held there. "We would take a very, very dim view if it transpires that there were actually minors there," said an
official.

One child prisoner, Mohamed el Gharani, is accused of involvement in a 1998 al-Qa'ida plot in London led by the alleged al-Qa'ida leader in Europe, Abu Qatada. But he was 12 years old at the time and living with his parents in Saudi Arabia. After being arrested in Karachi in October 2001, aged 14, he has spent several years in solitary confinement as an alleged al-Qa'ida-trained fighter. One Canadian-born boy, Omar Khadr, was 15 when arrested in 2002 and has also been kept in solitary confinement. The son of a known al-Qa'ida commander, he is accused of killing a US soldier with a grenade in July 2002 and was placed top of the Bush administration's list of detainees facing prosecution. "It would surely be really quite stupid to allow the world to think you have teenagers in orange jumpsuits and shackles, spending 23 hours a day locked up in a cage," a source added.

"If it's true that young people have been held there, their cases should be dealt with as a priority." British officials last night told the IoS that the UK had been assured that any juveniles would be held in a special facility for child detainees at Guantanamo called Camp Iguana.

But the US admits only three inmates were ever treated as children - three young Afghans, one aged 13, who were released in 2004 after a furore over their detention.

The row will again focus attention on the Bush administration's repeated claims that normal rules of war and human rights conventions do not apply to "enemy combatants" who were al-Qa'ida or Taliban fighters and supporters. The US insists these fighters did not have the same legal status as soldiers in uniform. Clive Stafford Smith, a legal director of Reprieve and lawyer for a number of detainees, said it broke every widely accepted legal convention on human rights to put children in the same prison as adults - including US law.

"There is nothing wrong with trying minors for crimes, if they have committed crimes. The problem is when you either hold minors without trial in shocking conditions, or try them before a military commission that, in the words of a prosecutor who refused to take part, is rigged," he said. "Even if these kids were involved in fighting - and Omar is the only one who the military pretends was - then there is a UN convention against the use of child soldiers. There is a general recognition in the civilised world that children should be treated differently from adults." Because the detainees have been held in Cuba for four years, all the teenagers are now thought to have reached their 18th birthdays in Guantanamo Bay and some have since been released. The latest figures emerged after the Department of Defense (DoD) in Washington was forced to release the first ever list of Guantanamo detainees earlier this month. Although lawyers say it is riddled with errors - getting numerous names and dates of birth wrong - they were able to confirm that 17 detainees on the list were under 18 when taken to the camp, and another seven were probably juveniles.

In addition, said Mr Stafford Smith, they had credible evidence from other detainees, lawyers and the International Red Cross that another 37 inmates were under 18 when they were seized. One detainee, an al-Jazeera journalist called Sami el Hajj, has identified 36 juveniles in Guantanamo. A senior Pentagon spokesman, Lt Commander Jeffrey Gordon, insisted that no one now being held at Guantanamo was a juvenile and said the DoD also rejected arguments that normal criminal law was relevant to the Guantanamo detainees. "There is no international standard concerning the age of an individual who engages in combat operations... Age is not a determining factor in detention. [of those] engaged in armed conflict against our forces or in support to those fighting against us."

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=9000&flag=news

Source: The Independent on Sunday

Further information

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    IRAN: Human Rights Watch Calls on Council to Remove Rights Abuser from Delegation [news]

    [New York, June 22, 2006] – Iran should immediately remove Tehran’s notoriously abusive prosecutor general from its delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Human Rights Watch said today. The prosecutor general, Saeed Mortazavi has been implicated in torture, illegal detention, and coercing false confessions by numerous former prisoners.

    “Iran’s decision to send Mortazavi to Geneva demonstrates utter contempt for human rights and for the new council,” said Joe Stork deputy director of Middle East and North Africa division for Human Rights Watch. “Iran has just confirmed why U.N. members refused to elect it to the Human Rights Council.”  

    In April 2000, Mortazavi, then the judge of Public Court Branch 1410, led a massive crackdown to silence growing dissent in Iran. He ordered the closure of more than 100 newspapers and journals. In 2003, he was promoted to the post of Tehran’s prosecutor general. In 2002, a human rights expert appointed by the old U.N. Commission on Human Rights to monitor the human rights situation in Iran took the extraordinary step of naming Mortazavi publicly in his report and calling for him to be suspended from the bench.  

    Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi died in June 2003 while in the custody of judiciary and security agents led by Mortazavi. Lawyers representing Kazemi’s family have alleged that her body showed signs of torture, including blows to her head, and that Mortazavi participated directly in her interrogation. 

    In 2004, Mortazavi orchestrated the arbitrary detention of more than 20 webloggers and internet journalists, who were held in secret prisons. Human Rights Watch collected testimonies from several of these detainees who implicated Mortazavi in their ordeal, which included lengthy solitary confinement and coercion to make false televised confessions.  

    “Iran has brought Mortazavi to Geneva instead of bringing him to justice,” Stork said. “This decision should make Mortazavi the poster child for rampant impunity in Iran.”  

    Human Rights Watch urged Iran to hold Mortazavi to account in particular for the allegations of torture, and to remove him from office. Governments participating in the Human Rights Council session should seek Mortazavi’s removal from the Iranian delegation, Human Rights Watch said, and should refuse to meet with the delegation while Mortazavi remains a member.  

    All U.N. member states were invited to send representatives to speak during this first week of the Human Rights Council, which was created last month to replace the old commission. More than 100 countries are scheduled to address the body.

    Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8983
     

    More information

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    AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Combating Torture – A Manual for Action [handbook]

    Combating Torture: A Manual for Action is an invaluable tool for all those who want to understand and fight against torture in the 21st century. It brings together the standards and recommendations of the UN, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and other sources from around the world, as well as Amnesty International’s recommendations, concerning the prevention of torture and ill-treatment.

    There are chapters on the prohibition of torture under international law, safeguards in custody, conditions of detention, torture in other settings, and overcoming impunity. Case studies highlight successful action that has been taken to combat torture in different countries, and there are checklists of international standards and suggested further reading. The manual was produced as part of Amnesty International’s worldwide campaign against torture.

    For more information, contact:
    Amnesty International - International Secretariat
    99-119 Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4RE, United Kingdom
    Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7814 6200
    Email: [email protected]
    Website: http://www.amnesty.org 

    Further information

     

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    LAOS: Fate Unknown – Ethnic Hmong Children at Risk [news]

    Some 23 ethnic Hmong children risk torture and other ill-treatment while being held in an undisclosed location in Laos.

    Deemed “illegal” immigrants by the Thai authorities, they were arrested in November 2005 whilst visiting a church, and deported on 5 December. They have been in detention since then, for no known reason; separated from their parents and families for more than four months.

    According to sources, the children – 20 of whom are girls – have endured appalling conditions. Aged 12 to 16, they are said to be “in bad condition”, and to have suffered ill-treatment. Some of them may have been tortured.

    The children were living among a community of some 6,000 Hmong refugees in the Thai village of Ban Huay Nam Khao. Many of the refugees claim to have sought sanctuary in Thailand after being persecuted for their connection to the armed resistance against the Lao government.

    But the Thai government defines them as illegal immigrants while the Lao authorities do not believe them to be of Lao nationality. The community thus clings precariously to its position, rejected by one country and unrecognized by another.

    Despite the children’s detention in Laos, reportedly in a village in Bolikhamsay province east of the capital Vientiane, the authorities continue to deny any responsibility. They claim they are searching for the children, but have refused offers of humanitarian assistance from UN agencies and international missions to help reconcile them with their families.

    The group of ethnic Hmong Laotians forcibly returned to Laos on 5 December are now known to number 27, of whom 22 are children. They are still held incommunicado, and are reported to have been ill-treated. Some of them may have been tortured.

    They are now known to be held in two separate facilities: 20 girls aged between 12 and 16, and two women, are detained at a prison attached to an army base outside Paksen, 200km east of the capital, Vientiane. Two boys and three men, who had been held in Vientiane, have now been moved to a detention facility in Phongsaly, in the north of the country.

    Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=8998&flag=news

    [Source: Amnesty International]

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    RESOURCES: Publications and Websites 

    Publications

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