VN willen onderzoek naar marteling Irak

[Henk Elegeert]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Op 24 oktober 2010 09:21 heeft Henk Elegeert <h.elegeert at gmail.com>
het volgende geschreven:
> http://www.nu.nl/buitenland/2362738/vn-willen-onderzoek-marteling-irak.html
>
> VN willen onderzoek naar marteling Irak

http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpNewsByYear_en)/364493F80032CF1CC12574EC0035F385?OpenDocument

"
TORTURE IS STILL A FREQUENT OR EVEN STANDARD PRACTICE IN MANY
COUNTRIES, WARNS UN EXPERT
24 October 2008

Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, on 23 October held an
interactive dialogue with the Third Committee of the General Assembly
in New York in which he concluded that torture is still a frequent or
even standard practice in many countries, even 60 years after the
adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Furthermore, he
drew the attention of the international community to the sobering fact
that, around the world, millions of people deprived of their liberty
have to live under conditions of detention which amount to inhuman and
degrading treatment.

The Special Rapporteur stressed that torture and ill-treatment takes
place behind closed doors and that due to a lack of public scrutiny an
environment conducive for the abuse of detainees can exist. Therefore,
there is a pressing need to replace the paradigm of opacity which
dominates detention regimes worldwide by one of transparency, public
monitoring and accountability. He called upon States to ratify the
Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and to
establish independent effective and well-resourced National Preventive
Mechanisms (NPM) mandated to carry out announced visits to places of
detention.

The main part of the UN Special Rapporteur’s report focused on the
protection of persons with disabilities from torture and
ill-treatment. This group of persons is particularly vulnerable to
abuse in places where they are deprived of their liberty, such as
prisons, social care centres, orphanages and mental health facilities,
as well as in their private homes. Inside public institutions, persons
with disabilities are frequently subjected to neglect, isolation,
severe forms of restrains and seclusion, as well as physical, mental
and sexual violence. In addition, persons with disabilities are
disproportionately exposed to medical experiments and irreversible
medical treatments without their consent, including sterilisation,
abortion, electroshock treatment and mind altering drugs. In the
private sphere, persons with disabilities are especially vulnerable to
violence and abuse, including sexual abuse, inside the home, at the
hands of family members, care givers and members of the community.

Another concern raised in the report relates to the excessive use of
solitary confinement in many countries of the world. The weight of
medical and psychological evidence points to the serious health
effects of the use of solitary confinement. When isolation regimes are
intentionally used to apply psychological pressure on detainees, such
practices become coercive and should be absolutely prohibited.
Therefore, the Special Rapporteur on Torture emphasised that as a
general principle, solitary confinement should only be used in very
exceptional cases, for as short a time as possible and only as a last
resort.

In 2008, the Special Rapporteur on Torture conducted a fact-finding
mission to Denmark and Greenland, and a joint visit with the Special
Rappporteur on violence against women to the Republic of Moldova. His
mission to Equatorial Guinea which was initially scheduled for
February 2008 will take place in November 2008. Mr Nowak also
expressed hope that new dates for the visit to the Russian Federation
which was postponed by the Government in October 2006 will be
forthcoming.


For further information on the mandate and work of the Special
Rapporteur write to sr-torture at ohchr.org


Press Conference

The Special Rapporteur on Torture will hold a press conference on
Friday, 24 October 2008, at 10:15am. Room S-226, UNITED NATIONS HQ New
York.

Mr. Nowak's press conferences will be webcast live at www.un.org/webcast

Journalists without UN press accreditation wishing to attend the
briefing please refer to the website of the Media and Accreditation
Liaison Unit for details: http://www.un.org/media/accreditation/ or
contact: +1 212 963 6934.

...
"

Henk Elegeert

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