View previous stories
	Ending Torture needs fresh commitment from every UN Member State by Nils Melzer Special Rapporteur on Torture   At a time when the absolute prohibition of torture is often challenged in the name of national security across the globe, a group of UN human rights experts* strongly reaffirms that the practice of torture is a severe violation of human rights and call on States to eradicate the conditions and circumstances conducive to its practice.   To mark the International Day for the Victims of Torture, the UN experts highlight that prohibition of torture is ‘absolute’ and can never be justified under any circumstances.   “The absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment may well constitute the most fundamental achievement in the history of mankind,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer.   “Any tolerance or acquiescence concerning such practices, however exceptional and well argued, will inevitably lead down a slippery slope towards complete arbitrariness and brute force, in disgrace for all of humanity.”   The experts highlighted that the right to be free from torture cannot be lifted by States under any circumstances, and noted that its use destroys the fundamental human dignity not only of the victims, but also of the perpetrators.   "Torture destroys lives and is one of the most brutal human rights violations,” said Jens Modvig, who chairs the UN Committee against Torture. “States should be reminded that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever may be invoked to justify acts of torture. The absolute character of the prohibition against torture applies in any case, including in the context of fighting terrorism."   The experts said each State had a responsibility to act, using international conventions and protocols which were already in place.   “Upholding the absolute prohibition of torture must be a priority for all States. However, not all States condemn it as adamantly as they should. States must adopt effective measures to prevent acts of torture. The system created by the Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol provides powerful means for doing so; therefore we encourage all States to ratify these instruments," said Malcolm Evans, Chairperson of the Subcommittee on prevention of torture.   In addition to the requirement to prohibit torture, the experts also reminded States of the devastating consequences of torture and of their obligations to provide redress and rehabilitation to the victims.   The Chair of the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, Gaby Oré Aguilar, highlighted: “States are obliged to ensure that the absolute prohibition of torture is fully enforced. It is equally important that States observe their obligation to provide effective and prompt redress and rehabilitation to victims of torture and their families by making available the urgently needed resources to respond to the plight of thousands of torture victims around the world.”   Ending torture requires a renewed commitment from every UN Member State to eradicate the conditions and circumstances conducive to its practice, the experts stressed.   Every country must incorporate legal safeguards into domestic laws to prevent these conditions from arising, and to put the rights of the victims to redress and rehabilitation at the centre of these efforts.   (*) The joint statement was issued by the UN Committee against Torture, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Board of Trustees of the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture: http://bit.ly/2tVHrBg   Arbitrary police violence can amount to torture, even in public spaces, UN expert warns   Arbitrary violence by police can amount to torture, even when it takes place outside prison walls, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, has told the UN General Assembly in New York.   "Any unnecessary, excessive or otherwise arbitrary use of force by law enforcement officials is incompatible with the absolute prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," the expert said, presenting his latest report to the UN General Assembly.   “Where such force intentionally and purposefully inflicts pain or suffering on powerless individuals, who are unable to escape or resist, it is always conclusively unlawful and may even amount to torture,” he stated.   Mr. Melzer said he wanted to clarify that the prohibition of torture applied to “all and any use of force by law enforcement officials, including outside prison walls”, to help ensure that States prevented torture and ill-treatment in all circumstances.   “States must ensure that their law enforcement agents are trained, equipped and instructed to avoid any unnecessary, excessive or otherwise arbitrary use of force, and to give priority to non-violent means of carrying out their duty,” Mr. Melzer said, outlining a series of recommendations to reduce the use of force.   “If the use of force is unavoidable, State officials must exercise restraint and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offence and the legitimate purpose to be achieved.”   Specific weapons and riot control devices used by police and security forces could themselves be illegal, the Special Rapporteur warned.   “A weapon or any other means of law enforcement must be considered as inherently cruel, inhuman or degrading, and therefore absolutely prohibited, whenever it is specifically designed, or is of a nature, to employ unnecessary, excessive or otherwise arbitrary force, against human beings,” the expert said.   “Overall, I hope my report will clarify that arbitrary police violence is not just bad policy, but amounts to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” he concluded. “Any tolerance, acquiescence or impunity for such abuse amounts to a serious violation of international law.” http://bit.ly/2gR2hNt   Torture: A crime beneath contempt. (OHCHR)   With support from the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, many NGOs support torture survivors in overcoming their suffering, giving them back hope and the dignity destroyed by torture.   When he speaks, you’d never know Jhonier had spent the last 15 years as a “guest” of one of Colombia’s most notorious prisons.   “I’d never seen a microwave or large screens and I didn’t even know Facebook,” he said, describing his first few days of freedom. “I was afraid of the street. I had no notion of life in the city.” With his wire-rimmed glasses and thoughtful sentences, he sounds more like a professor than a former guerrilla with the FARC, Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces.   During his imprisonment, Jhonier was badly beaten. He was held in isolation, gassed and pepper-sprayed. He was hung high from the ceiling by his arms – and when jailers cut the rope, he tumbled into a heap. He survived, but several fellow inmates were left paralyzed.   “Many of us were rebels, not murderers. We weren’t terrorists but social warriors – resisters – with a different vision of society. We were persecuted for thinking differently.”   Halfway across the world in Ethiopia, a diminutive woman no bigger than a young teenager sits quietly, looking at the floor, her eyes the only visible feature of her veiled face. Samira (not her real name) was also punished for her thoughts.   Accused of supporting the opposition, she was dragged to prison for six months, beaten with an electric fence and psychologically tortured. Her voice is nearly inaudible as she tells a story she desperately wants to forget, a story of her harrowing escape, her terrifying overnight truck ride to the distant border with Kenya and her final sprint to freedom.   Torture may date back to ancient times but efforts to eradicate it have not succeeded.   “Torture is a serious crime in international law. There is no grey zone, yet it continues to happen,” said Laura Dolci, Secretary of the UN Fund for Victims of Torture at UN Human Rights. “There is no question, torture is meant to destroy.”   Had it not been for a few courageous organizations and individuals, it might well have destroyed the lives of Jhonier and Samira. It might also have destroyed the life of Samuel M., a Nairobi bus conductor assaulted and imprisoned for no apparent reason and who, disoriented, still walks with a limp many months later.   Or the lives of Elsi E., who was forced to stand naked during an interrogation in Colombia, or of Woga B. in Kenya, raped and beaten for belonging to the wrong ethnic group.   Torture nearly destroyed Gilberto Torres Martínez, abducted by paramilitaries for leading union protests against human rights violations by oil companies. After his highly publicized release, Gilberto fled abroad, embarking on a lonely 15-year exile. With the launch of the peace process, he returned, but ongoing threats again forced him to leave.   While their sheer resilience has played a major part in reconnecting these survivors with everyday life, they admit they could not have done it on their own.   Organizations that help   Normally it is a state’s responsibility to provide redress for victims of torture. But reality is different and civil society groups often have to step in.   For Jhonier, that group was the CSPP, the Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners, which seeks justice for victims of torture in Colombia and works with prisoners, a thankless and dangerous job.   Samira’s life, too, changed because of a local NGO. Early on, she met RCK, the Refugee Consortium of Kenya, the only organization that provides legal aid to asylum seekers in Kenya and helps refugee torture victims with psycho-social counseling.   “They helped me be fully recognized as a refugee and that will allow me to be resettled to another country,” she said. “My life is changing. Before I couldn’t even sleep at night I was so terrified. Now I have received counseling – I can air my problems and I am not alone.”   Both organizations receive desperately needed support from the UN Fund for Victims of Torture.   “UN Human Rights [which manages the Fund] has political weight, and the state listens when it is involved and takes us much more seriously,” said Oscar Ramírez, Coordinator of the Prison Assistance Area of CSPP.   NGOs are often a torture victim’s only lifeline. Their trained professionals work in difficult circumstances, frequently providing services not available anywhere else. Their work is psychologically difficult and can be physically dangerous.   “These groups are highly professional entities, staffed with doctors and lawyers and psychiatrists,” said Dolci-Kanaan. “They can’t erase the impact of torture but they can address its consequences and give people an opportunity to move forward with their lives. For each person who emerges from a nightmare, a family and an entire community benefits.”   Another example of this valuable work is the forensic reporting undertaken by IMLU, the Independent Medical Unit in Nairobi.   “To be able to get justice, we need credible forensic documentation,” said Peter Kiama, the organization’s Executive Director. IMLU also provides rehabilitation to torture victims and helps train doctors and lawyers to provide much-needed expertise and services.   In 2018, the Fund awarded just over US$ 7 million in grants to support more than 40,000 victims of torture through 166 projects in 78 countries.   According to Article 1 of the UN Convention against Torture, it is defined as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person”. This could include obtaining information or a confession, or punishing or intimidating a person.   “Torture is an unequivocal crime, prohibited under all circumstances, bar none. No matter what threat to society, it is unjustifiable and illegal to cause pain to defenceless men, women and children. Torture is beneath contempt, and unworthy of any decent society,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra''ad Al Hussein in a recent speech.   Prohibition against torture is a cornerstone of international law, yet many countries still practice some form of it.   In a 2016 report to the Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture listed more than 70 countries in which some form of torture had taken place.   “Torture has no borders,” said Dolci, “and it can occur in many circumstances – in conflict, in police stations, or because of poverty. Sometimes it is caused by ignorance or it can be the product of sheer brutality. But in the end, it has the same outcome: those with power step on the dignity and integrity of fellow human beings. Restoring them is part of the core mission of the many organizations financially supported by the UN Fund.”   For Jhonier and Samira and all the others, renewed dignity and integrity are the glue that holds them together and allows them to dream of a future they once thought beyond reach.   http://unhumanrights.exposure.co/torture-a-crime-beneath-contempt http://www.ibanet.org/Human_Rights_Institute/Campaign-Support-Victims-Torture.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Torture/UNVFT/Pages/WhattheFunddoes.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Torture/SRTorture/Pages/SRTortureIndex.aspx Visit the related web page
	Recent killings in western Mosul indicative of rising war crimes against civilians by OHCHR, UN News, agencies   Protecting Civilians: A lesson from Iraq on why we can’t ignore international humanitarian law, by Eva Svoboda. (Overseas Development Institute)   Today, 11 million Iraqis are in need of humanitarian assistance. Of that, 3.4 million are internally displaced. Many have been displaced multiple times. There is little doubt that Iraqis will be breathing a sigh of relief at the news that Mosul, after three long years, has been freed from the clutches of the Islamic State. Nadia Murad Basee Taha’s account of her experience stands as a horrific testimony of life and death under the Islamic State (IS), but her voice is sadly one of the thousands trapped in this conflict.   As Mosul is gradually cleared of IS presence, only time will unveil the scale of civilian deaths. There is a strong sense among aid agencies that in today’s conflicts, there has been a gradual but steady erosion of commitments to protect civilians.   While the true death toll of the battle against IS may never be known, civilian casualties should never be accepted as mere ‘collateral damage’.   The last battle in Mosul is illustrative of what civilians have to endure during armed conflict. It should serve as a stark reminder of how critical it is to uphold the norms of international humanitarian law and not let them slide backwards.   For those living in Mosul, there was often no way out. They were trapped, prevented from seeking safety, lacked basic items with little or no access to health care and lived under constant fear of airstrikes, sniper fire, shelling, and bombs. While Mosul is no longer subject to the horrors of IS rein, normality is still a distant dream. Rebuilding the city will take years and cost billions, let alone rebuilding a society that has been utterly torn apart.   The High Commissioner for Human Rights stated recently that ‘international crimes may have been perpetrated by ISIL’. Ever since the rise of IS, the group is known to have put people in the direct line of fire to protect themselves and to have sold women and girls into sex slavery.   Indeed, the road leading to the defeat of IS in Mosul has not been without its repercussions. Mosul, as well as Aleppo or Raqqa in Syria, are stark examples of what urban warfare can do to civilians.   There is nothing new about wars in cities. Drone footage from Aleppo and Mosul bring home the sheer level of physical destruction. But what we see are only the visible effects of urban warfare; they do not show what daily life is like for people in these cities.   As the battle for Mosul continued to rage, aid agencies and human rights organisations became increasingly concerned with the rise of civilian casualties following attacks by the Iraqi Security Forces and the US-led coalition. Allegations were raised that the use of imprecise weapons – even if their intended target was of a military nature - may have caused unnecessary civilian casualties.   What is often misunderstood is that there is no such thing as reciprocity in international humanitarian law. Regardless of how badly one’s opponent may behave, or how little regard they may show for the laws regulating combat, the other side still needs to do its utmost to protect civilians.   International humanitarian law (IHL) does not accept that civilians are targeted deliberately or that there are insufficient precautions taken to protect them. The primary responsibility may rest with states, but armed non-state actors too, are bound to protect civilians.   While the laws regulating armed conflict are robust, it is their implementation that is deficient. Despite a variety of programmes which disseminate knowledge of IHL to a range of audiences, including states and their armed forces, judges, legislators, armed non-state actors, the staff of international and non-governmental organisations and the general public, there remains a persistent lack of familiarity with the law.   Nevertheless, there are concrete steps that can be taken to bridge the gap between law and reality.   Firstly, IHL must be understood and pursued in peacetime as well as during armed conflict. The law should be incorporated into military manuals and operational orders and directives, both by states and armed non-state actors.   They must then establish mechanisms to investigate and discipline or punish those found to have violated the law. One possible option is to create a position similar to the Secretary-General’s Special Representatives on Children and Armed Conflict and on Sexual Violence, with a mandate to consider IHL more broadly.   Secondly, all sides in war and states supporting them need to show the political will to strengthen existing IHL mechanisms. This is critical as enforcement remains a significant problem. As it is now, there is no central authority in the same way that domestic legal systems have courts and police forces. The conduct in war is entirely dependent on the goodwill of parties to the conflict.   Awareness of the law and self-regulation by parties to armed conflict is therefore central to promoting compliance. One possible way of doing that is through civilian harm tracking mechanisms which can help armed forces in tracking, analysing and investigating civilian deaths.   The reality is that wars are horrific and messy, but IHL is there to limit the terrible consequences that war inflicts on civilians. While the battle for Mosul may have come to a close, civilians are still not entirely out of harm’s way as it will take the Iraqi forces some time to fully regain control of the city. As military action continues, we must ensure that all civilians are protected, not just because it is a legal obligation on all sides but because it is morally right.   * Eva Svoboda has worked in emergencies in the Middle East, Africa and Asia for NGOs and the ICRC focusing on civilian protection.   June 2017   Noting “credible” reports that ISIL/Daesh fighters killed more than 231 civilians, including women and children, attempting to flee western Mosul over the past two weeks, the United Nations human rights office underscored that attacks on civilians could amount to war crimes.   The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – which has been documenting human rights violations and abuses since the start of the military operations to retake Mosul – said that recent reports suggest a “significant escalation” in atrocities against civilians.   “Shooting children as they try to run to safety with their families – there are no words of condemnation strong enough for such despicable acts,” Zeid Ra''ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a news release.   “I call on the Iraqi authorities to ensure that those who are responsible for these horrors are held accountable and brought to justice in line with international human rights laws and standards.”   In the most gruesome incident, last Thursday (1 June), ISIL reportedly shot and killed at least 163 civilians, including women, men and children, next to a Pepsi factory in the in al-Shifa neighbourhood. Their bodies were reportedly left on the street for several days following the killings.   An undetermined number of civilians were also reported missing. Those killed and missing were fleeing clashes between ISIL and the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF).   In the same neighbourhood, at least 27 people, including 14 women and five children were reportedly killed by ISIL on 26 May, and at least 41 others on 3 June.   Referring to reports of civilian casualties due to recent air strikes in an ISIL-held area of western Mosul, OHCHR called on the ISF and their coalition partners to ensure that their operations comply fully with international humanitarian law and that all possible measures are taken to avoid the loss of civilian lives.   An air strike on 31 May in Zanjilly (an ISIL-held area of western Mosul) reportedly resulted between 50 and 80 civilian deaths.” http://bit.ly/2sQ5PUl   June, 2017   100,000 children in extreme danger in Mosul. (Reuters)   Some 100,000 children are trapped in extremely dangerous conditions in the remaining ISIL-held enclave in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the United Nations said on Monday.   Children were being used as human shields by the extremists or were caught in the crossfire of the battle, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement. Hospitals and clinics had come under attack, it said.   "We are receiving alarming reports of civilians including several children being killed in west Mosul," UNICEF said. "Some were reportedly killed as they desperately tried to flee the fighting which is intensifying by the hour,"   A Reuters TV crew on Saturday saw the bodies of dozens of civilians, including children, lying in a frontline street, apparently killed while fleeing the enclave.   "Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure including hospitals, clinics, schools, homes and water systems should stop immediately," UNICEF said.   http://tmsnrt.rs/2vaKMyZ http://bit.ly/2vDVYVE http://www.icrc.org/en/document/scarred-life-war-mosul-draws-brutal-end http://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul Visit the related web page
	View more stories