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Amnesty International has accused governments around the world of
betraying their commitments to stamp out torture, three decades after
the ground-breaking Convention Against Torture was adopted by the UN in
1984.
“Governments around the world are two-faced on torture
- prohibiting it in law, but facilitating it in practice” said Salil
Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, as he launched Stop
Torture, Amnesty International’s latest global campaign to combat
widespread torture and other ill-treatment in the modern world.
“Torture
is not just alive and well – it is flourishing in many parts of the
world. As more governments seek to justify torture in the name of
national security, the steady progress made in this field over the last
thirty years is being eroded.”
Since 1984, 155 states
have ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, 142 of which are
researched by Amnesty International. In 2014, Amnesty International
observed at least 79 of these still torturing – more than half the
states party to the Convention that the organisation reports on. A
further 40 UN states haven’t adopted the Convention, although the global
legal ban on torture binds them too.
Over the last
five years, Amnesty International has reported on torture and other
forms of ill-treatment in at least 141 countries from every region of
the world – virtually every country on which it works. The secretive
nature of torture means the true number of countries that torture is
likely to be higher still.
In some of these countries
torture is routine and systematic. In others, Amnesty International has
only documented isolated and exceptional cases. The organization finds
even one case of torture or other ill-treatment totally unacceptable.
The Stop Torture campaign launches with a new media briefing, Torture in 2014: 30 Years of Broken Promises, which provides an overview of the use of torture in the world today.
The
briefing details a variety of torture techniques – from stress
positions and sleep deprivation to electrocution of the genitals – used
against criminal suspects, security suspects, dissenting voices,
political rivals and others.
As part of the campaign Amnesty International commissioned a Globescan survey to gauge worldwide attitudes to torture.
Alarmingly, the survey found nearly half (44%) of respondents – from 21
countries across every continent - fear they would be at risk of
torture if taken into custody in their country.
The
vast majority (82%) believe there should be clear laws against torture.
However, more than a third (36%) still thought torture could be
justified in certain circumstances.
“The results from
this new global survey are startling, with nearly half of the people we
surveyed feeling fearful and personally vulnerable to torture. The vast
majority of people believe that there should be clear rules against
torture, although more than a third still think that torture could be
justified in certain circumstances. Overall, we can see broad global
support amongst the public for action to prevent torture,” said Caroline
Holme, Director at GlobeScan.
Measures such as the
criminalisation of torture in national legislation, opening detention
centres to independent monitors, and video recording interrogations have
all led to a decrease in the use of torture in those countries taking
their commitments under the Convention Against Torture seriously.
Amnesty
International is calling on governments to implement protective
mechanisms to prevent and punish torture – such as proper medical
examinations, prompt access to lawyers, independent checks on places of
detention, independent and effective investigations of torture
allegations, the prosecution of suspects and proper redress for victims.
The
organization’s global work against torture continues, but will focus in
particular on five countries where torture is rife and Amnesty
International believes it can achieve significant impact. Substantive
reports with specific recommendations for each will form the spine of
the campaign.
- In Mexico the government argues that torture is the exception rather than the norm, but in reality abuse by police and security forces is widespread and goes unpunished. Miriam López Vargas, a 31 year-old mother of four, was abducted from her hometown of Ensenada by two soldiers in plainclothes, and taken to a military barracks. She was held there for a week, raped three times, asphyxiated and electrocuted to force her to confess that she was involved in drug-related offences. Three years have passed, but none of her torturers have been brought to justice.
- Justice is out of reach for most torture survivors in the Philippines. A secret detention facility was recently discovered where police officers abused detainees ‘for fun'. Police officers reportedly spun a ‘wheel of torture’ to decide how to torture prisoners. Media coverage led to an internal investigation and some officers being dismissed, but Amnesty International is calling for a thorough and impartial investigation which will lead to the prosecution in court of the officers involved. Most acts of police torture remain unreported and torture survivors continue to suffer in silence.
- In Morocco and Western Sahara, authorities rarely investigate reports of torture. Spanish authorities extradited Ali Aarrass to Morocco despite fears he would be tortured. He was picked up by intelligence officers and taken to a secret detention centre, where he says they electrocuted his testicles, beat the soles of his feet and hanged him by his wrists for hours on end. He says the officers forced him to confess to assisting a terrorist group. Ali Aarass was convicted and sentenced to 12 years behind bars on the basis of that “confession”. His allegation of torture has never been investigated.
- In Nigeria, police and military personnel use torture as a matter of routine. When Moses Akatugba was arrested by soldiers he was 16 years old. He said they beat him and shot him in the hand. According to Moses he was then transfered to the police, who hanged him by his limbs for hours at a police station. Moses says he was tortured into signing a “confession” that he was involved in a robbery. The allegation that he confessed as a result of torture was never fully investigated. In November 2013, after eight years waiting for a verdict, Moses was sentenced to death.
- In Uzbekistan, torture is pervasive but few torturers are ever brought to justice. The country is closed to Amnesty International. Dilorom Abdukadirova spent five years in exile after security forces opened fire on a protest she was attending. On returning to Uzbekistan, she was detained, barred from seeing her family, and charged with attempting to overthrow the government. During her trial, she looked emaciated with bruising on her face. Her family are convinced she had been tortured.
“Thirty
years ago Amnesty led the campaign for a worldwide commitment to combat
torture resulting in the UN’s Convention Against Torture. Much progress
has been made since, but it is disheartening that today we still need a
worldwide campaign to ensure that those promises are fulfilled,” said
Salil Shetty.
Torture in 2014: 30 years of broken promises
Download:
This document is also available in:
Spanish
French
Arabic
Attitudes to torture: Stop Torture global survey
Download:
This document is also available in:
French
Arabic
Spanish
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