New IHF Report on Torture and Inhuman Treatment
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Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 22:36:24 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: New IHF Report on Torture and Inhuman Treatment
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: International Helsinki Federation <[email protected]>
New IHF Report on Torture and Inhuman Treatment
Torture and Inhuman Treatment or
Punishment:
Most Wide-Spread Human Rights
Problems in the OSCE Region
New IHF Report Documents Issue in 32 Countries
Vienna, 22 March 2000. Torture, ill-treatment and police misconduct
are the most wide-spread human rights problems among the member states
of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said
the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) in a
report published today.
The report, "Torture, Inhuman Treatment or Punishment in the OSCE
Region," covers 32 countries in Europe, Central Asia and North
America. It provides background information to the "OSCE Supplementary
Human Dimension Meeting on Human Rights and Inhuman Treatment or
Punishment," which will convene in Vienna on 27 March. At the same
time, the IHF aims to increase public awareness of these problems.
"The record of the OSCE participating
States in this regard is a disgrace. Police
behavior is deteriorating in many
formerly communist countries. Brutality
by police can no longer be excused as a
hang-over from totalitarian methods, and
is better understood as a crude and illegal
means of maintaining control in post-
Soviet states. But it is also common in
the most democratic and advanced
countries in the region."
Aaron Rhodes,
IHF Executive Director
The report documents the use of torture and ill-treatment by the
police in dozens of countries. In some countries the situation is
deteriorating: in Russia, 50 percent of those arrested reportedly
suffer torture or ill-treatment; in Ukraine, at least 30 percent.
Actual numbers may be considerably higher since many torture
victims remain silent for fear of reprisals.
Common torture methods include beating, kicking, giving electroshocks,
and placing a gas mask on the face of the victim and blocking the air
hose until he or she is close to suffocation. Rape and threats of
sexual abuse to detainees or their family members are common. Often
the victims' hands are bound behind their back and they are hung from
an iron bar with their feet off the ground, while they are beaten.
Another method involves placing the suspect in a steel case, which is
beaten heavily causing unbearable noise meant to break the suspect
mentally.
In many OSCE countries, charges and court verdicts are often based on
"confessions" extracted under torture or ill-treatment. Due to
increasingly "sophisticated methods", it is often impossible to prove
that torture has been used. Long pre-trial detention without lawyers
and family having access to the detainees facilitates torture and
ill-treatment. Also, pressure on police officers to obtain higher
clarification rates encourages the use of such methods.
During an IHF mission to Georgia in 1999, all the prisoners
interviewed at Avtchala and Krit prisons reported that they had
suffered serious physical abuse in police custody. In Turkmenistan,
numerous detainees are beaten to death, or commit suicide. In
Uzbekistan, President Karimov stated in April 1999 that he would
gladly "strike the neck of 200 people to ensure stability in
Uzbekistan."
April 1999 decrees gave police in Serbia increased powers to search,
arrest and detain suspects, increasing the likelihood of misconduct by
law enforcement officials when dealing with suspected political
opponents of the ruling parties. People suspected of political
activities were summoned for "informative talks," beaten, and
illegally detained in police headquarters. In addition, extrajudicial
punishment and mysterious deaths and killings of political opponents
increased. In Kosovo, massacres of ethnic Albanians took place, and
after the war, Serbs, Roma and other nationalities were targeted. Over
six months after the end of the war, security and policing problems
continue to cause grave concern. In Montenegro, allegations of
ill-treatment by police have recently decreased, but some cases have
had political implications.
In Albania, the police force appears to be incapable of efficiently
combating violence and other crimes. Moreover, police are often
directly involved in violent acts themselves.
The report shows that in nearly all 32 countries, the police resort to
ill-treatment, excessive use of force, or do not react promptly to
racially motivated attacks on minority members; sometimes they are
themselves involved in such attacks. In Greece in July, all foreigners
found in the streets were rounded up by the police, taken to police
stations and had their fingerprints taken for possible matches in
pending criminal cases. In the new German federal states � where, in
proportion to the population, the largest number of violent xenophobic
and racist incidents have been recorded - the authorities appear to be
understating the problem.
During the last few years, the Austrian police have committed many
acts of violence against aliens, particularly those of African
origin. The victims have in most cases ended up being themselves
accused of "resisting a public officer in the execution of his duties"
and have subsequently been found guilty and sentenced. Conversely, the
prosecutor usually dismisses cases in which police officers are
charged with brutal behavior. In 1999, out of 211 alleged cases of
ill-treatment, only three officers were sentenced, and all three are
still in office.
In Belgium (as in Austria and Germany) deportation measures for
rejected asylum seekers have caused serious scandals, the most
well-known case involving Semira Adamu, who was suffocated with a
cushion held by two gendarmes during her deportation to Nigeria in
1998. As of the end of 1999, nobody had been sanctioned for her death,
and other circumstances jeopardizing deportees' health continued.
In France, several deaths in custody/questionable circumstances have
raised concern. In a judgment delivered in Strasbourg on 28 July 1999
in the case of Selmouni v. France, the European Court of Human Rights
held unanimously that France had violated article 3 (prohibition of
torture) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In most countries covered in the report, few if any officers are
brought to justice even for misconduct causing deaths. In most
formerly communist states, no adequate avenues for complaints exist.
Generally, if police officers are charged with abuse, judicial
proceedings are suspended, the officers are acquitted for "lack of
evidence", or their punishments are lenient and they may continue to
serve in the police force. In the U.S., four New York City Police
Department officers shot 41 times at unarmed West African Amadou
Diallo, who was struck by nineteen bullets and died. In February 2000,
the officers were acquitted.
In 1999, the United States set a new record by executing 98 prisoners.
Among those executed were foreign nationals whose right to consular
notification had been violated, individuals who may have been mentally
ill or retarded and juvenile offenders. The U.S. remains one of six
countries in the world (together with Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia, and Yemen) that are known to have executed juvenile offenders
in the 1990s, leading the list with ten such executions between 1990
and 1999. Six persons were exonerated on grounds of innocence and
released from death row during 1999. In a positive development, the
Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that the death penalty was in
contradiction with the provision of the constitution that guaranteed
the right for life, declaring all articles of the criminal code
providing for the death sentence unconstitutional.
In most former Soviet republics, prison conditions are deplorable.
Prisons are overcrowded and unhygienic. Due to lack of space,
prisoners often have to sleep in shifts, their meals are of poor
quality, and medical care is often virtually nonexistent. Infectious
diseases such as tuberculosis (including forms resistant to
medication) are widespread, threatening also the majority population.
In Russia, prisoners have died of oxygen deficiency. In Uzbekistan, 38
deaths in custody were reported in the Jaslik labor camp alone.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., a UN special rapporteur reported extensive
sexual misconduct and systematic violations of women's right to
privacy in U.S prisons.
In some countries the treatment of the mentally ill or handicapped
raised serious concern. The report criticizes the Ilgi facility for
persons with mental disabilities in Latvia. In Norway, a new law on
the use of coercion and force in the treatment of mentally handicapped
persons has been condemned for allowing the forcible use of a
controversial behavior therapy ("negative reinforcement"), and because
the law permits the use of involuntary treatment in private homes.
Despite Russian's reassurances that it is fighting a war against
terrorism in Chechnya, it is Chechen civilians who have borne the
brunt of the Russian offensive in this war, as in the first Chechen
conflict: they have fallen victim to indiscriminate extrajudicial
executions and serious ill-treatment while detained in filtration
camps.
IHF�s full report, "Torture, Inhuman Treatment or Punishment in the
OSCE Region," can be obtained by calling
the IHF Secretariat at +43-1-408-8822. It is posted on the IHF's Web
Site at http://www.ihf-hr.org.
For more information:
Aaron Rhodes, Executive Director:
+43-1-408 88 22 or +43-676-635 66 12 (mobile)
Brigitte Dufour, Deputy Executive Director:
+43-1-408 88 22 or +43-676-690 2457 (mobile)
Paula Tscherne-Lempiainen, Chief Editor
+43-3862-27 723 or +43-676-690 2454 (mobile)
__________________________________
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) is a
non-governmental organization, which monitors compliance with the
human rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and its follow-up
documents. In addition to supporting and providing liaison among 39
Helsinki committees and cooperating organizations, the IHF has direct
links with human rights activists where no Helsinki committee exists.
It criticizes human rights abuses regardless of the political system
of the state where these abuses occur.
__________________________________________________
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Wickenburggasse 14/7
A-1080 VIENNA, AUSTRIA
Tel. +43-1-408 88 22
Fax +43-1-408 88 22-50
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.ihf-hr.org
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