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	No more hypocrisy, Stop Condemning Torture by Others, while Accepting its Products by Juan E. Méndez United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture   May 2014 (Amnesty International)   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.   http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2015/06/stop-torture-26-june/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/amnesty-international-global-crisis-torture-exposed-new-worldwide-campaign-2014-05-13 http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/campaigns/security-with-human-rights/demand-accountability-for-torture http://www.amnesty.org/en/stoptorture   Apr 2014   No more hypocrisy, Stop Condemning Torture by Others, while Accepting its Products, by Juan E. Méndez, Special Rapporteur on torture.   The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, has urged Governments to strictly abstain from using information or products of acts of torture and ill-treatment collected by third parties in other countries. “It is hypocritical of States to condemn torture committed by others while accepting its products,” Mr. Méndez underscored.   “Governments cannot condemn the evil of torture and other ill-treatment at the international level while condoning it at the national level,” Mr. Méndez said during the presentation of his latest report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.   “Any use of torture-tainted information, even if the torture has been committed by agents of another State, is an act of acquiescence in torture that compromises the user State’s responsibility and leads to individual and State complicity in acts of torture,” the United Nations expert warned.   His ground-breaking report identifies State practices on the use of torture-tainted information collected by others, and underlines that some States have “diluted cardinal principals necessary for preventing and suppressing torture and ill-treatment,” including the absolute prohibition of torture and ill-treatment.   “This absolute and non-derogable prohibition also applies to collecting, sharing and receiving torture-tainted information between States during intelligence gathering or covert operations,” Mr. Méndez highlighted.   States should “refrain from allowing torture-tainted evidence in judicial proceedings or by creating a market for torture-tainted information outside of formal proceedings through the collecting, sharing and receiving such information by executive agencies,” the Special Rapporteur said.   Mr. Méndez regretted that States refuse to subject the work of their intelligence and security agencies to scrutiny or international oversight, which “leads to the erroneous conclusion that executive collecting, sharing and receiving of torture-tainted information is not subject to international law.”   The United Nations expert also insisted that the justification behind the absolute prohibition of torture and ill-treatment includes the objective of “removing any incentive to undertake torture anywhere in the world.”   “It is not sufficient to ensure that the judicial process is free from the taint of torture,” Mr. Méndez said. “Torture must not be encouraged, condoned, or acquiesced in all manifestations of public power, executive and judicial.”   “There is a clear affirmative obligation to prevent torture and ill-treatment that includes actions the State takes in its own jurisdiction to prevent torture or other ill-treatment in another jurisdiction,” the Special Rapporteur added.   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session25/Pages/ListReports.aspx   * Juan E. Méndez was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in November 2010. He is independent from any government and serves in his individual capacity.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/torture/srtorture/pages/srtortureindex.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CAT/Pages/CATIndex.aspx http://www.omct.org/ http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Torture/UNVFT/Pages/WhattheFunddoes.aspx Visit the related web page
	Children can now lodge complaints with the UN about violations of their rights by United Nations child rights experts   United Nations child rights experts have hailed a new treaty that allows children to complain directly to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child about alleged violations of their rights.   The treaty, known as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure, has today (14 April) entered into force following its ratification by the required 10 countries*.   “Today marks the beginning of a new era for children’s rights. Children are now further empowered as this Optional Protocol recognises their capacity to exercise and claim their own rights,” the four UN child rights experts said.   “It is a sad reality that, 25 years after the adoption of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, children’s rights continue to be violated on a daily basis, including through violence, exploitation and abuse. We hope that this new treaty will give voice to children’s testimonies and help them to obtain the necessary remedy and reparation. We applaud those States which, by ratifying this Protocol, have confirmed their determination to improve children’s access to justice,” they added.   The new Protocol enables children and their representatives to submit complaints to the Committee on the Rights of the Child about specific violations of their rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as under its other two Optional Protocols (on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child pornography and child prostitution). But children can only complain if their government has ratified the Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure, and if they have exhausted all legal avenues in their own country.   “The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most ratified human rights treaty. We hope that this new Optional Protocol will soon reach universal ratification. Ratification signifies that States take their obligations seriously and are ready for any scrutiny concerning individual allegations of child rights violations,” the experts said.   “In order to reach out to the most vulnerable and marginalised children, the Optional Protocol should be widely publicised and countries should inform the public and raise awareness amongst children of their right to complain and seek redress,” they added.   (*) Albania, Bolivia, Gabon, Germany, Montenegro, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Slovakia, Costa Rica   Signed: Kirsten Sandberg, Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence against Children; Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict; and Najat Maalla M’jid, UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Visit the related web page
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