A/HRC/13/39
defined in article 1, with appropriate sanctions taking into account the gravity of the
crime of torture; investigate all allegations and suspicions of torture by independent
and effective “police-police” bodies; bring perpetrators of torture to justice under the
various forms of criminal jurisdiction mentioned in article 5 of the Convention;
provide victims of torture with an effective remedy and adequate reparation for the
harm suffered – in particular medical, psychological and other forms of
rehabilitation; and take all measures necessary to prevent torture, including prompt
access of all detainees to lawyers, judges, doctors and their families;
(b)
All States should ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against
Torture and establish effective national preventive mechanisms to carry out
preventive visits to all places of detention. Those mechanisms should be fully
independent bodies with a pluralistic composition and equipped with the financial and
human resources necessary to conduct regular and ad hoc visits to all places of
detention (police lock-ups, prisons, pretrial detention facilities, psychiatric hospitals
and special detention facilities for women, children, migrants, drug addicts, etc.);
(c)
All States and the international community are requested to provide the
resources necessary to develop national systems for the administration of justice that
provide all human beings with equal access to justice and the right to a fair trial at all
stages of criminal proceedings. In particular, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, police and
prison officials shall be selected, educated and paid properly and in sufficient number.
Effective measures for combating corruption in the administration of justice shall be
taken. Judges shall be fully independent from the executive and legislative branches of
Government and shall exercise judicial functions with impartiality and
professionalism. Pretrial detention of criminal suspects shall be the exception, not the
rule, and shall last for as little time as possible. Pretrial detainees shall be separated
from convicted prisoners, children from adults, women from men. The main aim of
correctional institutions shall be the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration
into society. Punitive policies of criminal justice shall be brought in line with this
important aim, provided for in article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, by means of structural reforms of the administration of justice;
(d)
The international community should establish a global fund for national
human rights protection systems which will assist States in their efforts to improve
and reform national criminal justice systems, including the judiciary, prosecutors,
police and prisons. That fund shall be financed by States, non-governmental
organizations and the corporate sector and shall contribute to the legal empowerment
of the poor;
(e)
The Human Rights Council should consider drafting a United Nations
convention on the rights of detainees to codify all human rights of persons deprived of
liberty, as laid down in the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
and similar soft law instruments, in a legally binding human rights treaty with
effective monitoring and implementation mechanisms;
(f)
In the fight against terrorism and other forms of organized crime, States
should keep in mind the absolute and non-derogable nature of the prohibition of
torture. In particular, detention in secret places of detention, the expulsion or
“rendition” of terrorist suspects to countries known for their practice of torture, the
use of diplomatic assurances from these Governments not to torture as a means of
circumventing the principle of non-refoulement, “enhanced interrogation techniques”
aimed at inflicting severe physical or mental pain or suffering on detainees for the
purpose of extracting intelligence information and similar practices in the global fight
against terrorism are absolutely prohibited under international law and shall
immediately be terminated. After all, torture, as the ultimate form of power exercised
20
GE.10-10042
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents