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Failing in their obligations to prevent human rights violations, torture for instance, and punish perpetrators, ensure justice and redress for victims, governments fail to the learn lessons from the Arab uprisings and fail to understand the root causes of instability in this region. Of great resemblance to governments’ shortsighted vision of stability, is focusing on "state security" or "national security" at the expense of individual and human security, thus resulting in further undermining of human rights and deterioration in the human rights situation.
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The campaign focuses on all state custody contexts. This includes: ordinary criminal justice systems; people held by the military, police forces, Special Forces, secret services; situations involving emergency laws, regulations or provisions; and unofficial or secret places of detention (where risk of torture significantly increases).
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Amnesty International holds governments to their international obligations to prevent and punish torture and other ill-treatment, whether committed by agents of the state or by other individuals. Amnesty International also opposes torture and other ill-treatment by armed political groups.
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The crime of enforced disappearance was invented by Adolf Hitler in his Nacht und Nebel Erlass (Night and Fog Decree) issued on 7 December 1941. Since that date, hundreds of thousands of persons have been the victim of this crime. Sadly, the commission of this crime saw a resurgence in Latin America in the 1950s and then it spread around the world. Enforced disappearance remains one of the worst human rights violations.
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The prohibition of committing acts of torture and ill-treatment or punishment is embodied in a number of international and regional human rights treaties. It is essential to note at the start that torture and ill-treatment or punishment are prohibited at all times, under all circumstances, during peace and during armed conflict, and despite any reasons. So this prohibition does not apply only in relation to states that ratified the relevant treaties, it applies to all states. Prohibition of torture and ill-treatment or punishment is considered a principle of customary international law that applies to all at all times. It cannot be restricted, or derogated from in any circumstances.
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The Middle East and North Africa region has convulsed with upheaval for much of this decade. Initial optimism that human rights, including the right to be free from torture, would be better respected has largely given way to despair at the lack of progress or, in the case of Syria, horror at the human rights catastrophe in which torture is being committed on an industrial scale. Elsewhere, particularly in countries which have seen the fall of long-standing rulers, there has been frustration at the pace of change.
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In Iraq, there is currently a non-international armed conflict involving Shi’a militias clearly operating with the consent of the central government and in cooperation with government armed and security forces and the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS). The rules of IHL therefore apply and are binding on all parties to the conflict, including Shi’a militias. These rules and principles seek to protect anyone who is not actively participating in hostilities: notably civilians and anyone, including those who were previously participating in hostilities, who is wounded or surrenders or is otherwise captured.
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Militias on all sides have carried out tit for tat abductions. Many civilians, including civil society activists, lawyers, journalists and public figures have been threatened, abducted and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment solely on account of their origin, opinion or perceived political affiliation. Those who were eventually released have gone into hiding or sought refuge outside of Libya. Others are still looking desperately for ways to leave.
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Five of the 11 ACPRA members are detainees held without trial or awaiting re-trial – they have been held for periods of up to four years. Three are free pending the outcome of their trials. And another three are serving prison terms of up to 15 years to which they were sentenced, in separate trials. All of their trials were unfair. They were convicted on vague charges, such as “breaking allegiance to” Saudi Arabia’s ruler and “questioning the integrity of officials,” in connection with their peaceful activism in defence of human rights in Saudi Arabia.
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“I am greatly saddened by
this situation, and by what we have come to…I never imagined that the injustice
would affect girls and children. First, the withdrawal of the father’s
passport, getting him fired, then imprisoned, then getting the son fired and
banning him from travel. And now it’s the girls and children’s turn, denying
them their education… What next?! What’s the idea behind all of this?!”
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This manual for action is about the fight
against torture. It brings together the ideas, the techniques, the achievements, the standards of governmental
behaviour and the means of implementing those standards that have emerged from
the efforts of anti-torture activists around the world over the past 25 years
and more. The hope is that people and organizations around the world concerned
about torture will benefit from learning what others have done, thus
strengthening the fight against torture.
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This Manual seeks to provide a practical guide to the relevant
human rights standards for anyone involved in examining how well a criminal
trial or a justice system meets international standards of fairness. It is
intended for the use of trial observers and others assessing the fairness of an
individual case, as well as for anyone seeking to evaluate the extent to which
a country’s criminal justice system guarantees respect for international
standards of fair trial. It may also serve as a guide for law makers, judges,
prosecutors and defence lawyers or as a training tool.
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This guide to international jurisprudence
on the question of torture and other forms of ill-treatment aims to give both
experts and those unfamiliar with international law an overview of the
expanding definition of torture, the duties incurred by States, the scope of
the prohibition, and international criminal law on individual responsibility for the crime of torture.
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This handbook is aimed primarily at less experienced NGOs,
particular smaller NGOs working at a national and community level, who wish to
develop and become more involved in torture reporting. It does not attempt to
provide technical medical or legal instruction, but focuses rather on the
process of reporting itself. In this way, it seeks to enable such NGOs to
produce high-quality information on both individual incidents and patterns of
torture, with a view to maximising the utility of the information to the
international bodies, as well as assisting those NGOs to select the most
appropriate procedure or procedures to which to address the information in
light of their own desired result.
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This manual was developed to enable States
to address one of the most fundamental concerns in protecting individuals from
torture—effective documentation. Such documentation brings evidence of torture
and ill-treatment to light so that perpetrators may be held accountable for
their actions and the interests of justice may be served. The documentation
methods contained in this manual are also applicable to other contexts,
including human rights investigations and monitoring, political asylum
evaluations, the defence of individuals who “confess” to crimes during torture and
needs assessments for the care of torture victims, among others. In the case of
health professionals who are coerced into neglect, misrepresentation or
falsification of evidence of torture, this manual also provides an
international point of reference for health professionals and adjudicators alike.
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This Guide aims to support and strengthen
the work of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) – whether they are human rights commissions
or ombudsman offices – in the prevention of torture, especially NHRIs that are fully compliant with the Paris
Principles.
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The purpose of this Handbook is to give practical guidance to
persons seeking redress for torture and other ill-treatment before the United
Nations human rights treaty bodies. The Handbook provides an overview of the
mandate and functions of the Human Rights Committee, the Committee against
Torture and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
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This guide aims at encouraging and assisting
states parties to the Convention to take the international standards and
obligations contained in the Convention seriously and to bring the
international prohibition of torture home.
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This manual has been written as
an information resource for judges and prosecutors throughout the world in
order to assist them to prevent and investigate acts of torture. Based on
international standards, it also contains check-lists of good practice and
advice that should be applicable in any legal system.
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I dream to empower people everywhere to stand up against torture: To have the courage, the freedom and the knowledge to stop the use of it. From the very start, my biggest motivation as an activist has been activists from MENA: You risk your life to stand up for your rights and I cannot think of anything more honourable than that. I hope that I will be able to use my own freedom to help you secure yours. I dream that we all unite in the fight against torture and that together, we can face the controversy of torture all over the world.
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Sometimes people feel detached from topics like torture because it is outside of their experience and they don’t know people that have been affected by it. The purpose of this workshop is to engage participant’s emotions through creating sensitivity to the potential effects of torture. The workshop enables participants to develop empathy with
those who have been tortured. Through this workshop, participants use
interactive activities to explore the effect of torture on a person, family,
community and country.
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