Civil Service in the news
Tortured souls
9/11/2007 - Foreign and Commonwealth Office [External website] 
The FCO leads on the UK government's anti-torture activity, which includes strengthening international organisations such as the UN, diplomatic activity such as lobbying, and providing funding for projects.
The word torture may have primitive connotations, but maltreatment of prisoners is still all too common in many countries. “Unfortunately, it is a problem governments are often reluctant to acknowledge,” explains Catherine Layden, Human Rights Group. “Even when they do, they often claim they are isolated incidents carried out by renegades, rather than systemic.”
Seeing torture as simply bad people doing bad things is too simplistic a view of the problem. Various factors play into creating an environment where torture becomes an endemic part of police or prison officials' routine. For example, it may be that the evidence requirements for successful prosecutions in a country are low, meaning that uncorroborated confessions are sufficient for conviction.
If police or prison officials are poorly trained on human rights issues and there is no strong anti-torture legislation in place, it is easy to see how these situations arise. “Lack of knowledge is a key problem,” says Catherine. “Officials are often ignorant of basic human rights principles, and have never been taught how to interview suspects without mistreating them, or how to take a more effective, humane approach to prison management.”
There are a number of ways the FCO helps address this lack of knowledge. For example, in partnership with the International Centre for Prison Studies, the FCO helped produce manuals and handbooks for prison staff. These take a practical approach to improving prison effectiveness, based on better treatment of prisoners. The project has had a clear impact - for example, the government of Nicaragua paid for and issued copies to its entire prison staff.
Another recent example is the human rights training in Libya that took place in March, organised by the FCO and the International Bar Association (IBA). The course - the first of its kind allowed to be presented by an international organisation in Libya - was attended by a cross section of Libyan officials and society, including lawyers, a journalist, post-graduate students, medical professionals, a prosecutor, and representatives from the prison service and the Qadhafi Development Foundation. It was enthusiastically welcomed by participants, who were keen to receive further training in future.
Trying to get governments to change their attitudes, practices and legislation is a constant lobbying effort, both in the FCO's own right and as part of the EU. In addition to convincing countries to sign up to the UN Convention against Torture (UNCAT), the UK is also lobbying to persuade countries to ratify the Optional Protocol for UNCAT (OPCAT). The protocol establishes a system of regular visits to places of detention by independent national and international bodies, which will help prevent torture and maltreatment.
“Torture is a universally prohibited practice under international law,” says Catherine. “There is no justification whatsoever for its use and we must continue to make representations about it to countries of concern.”
Case study one: Kazakhstan
For the first 72 hours after arrest, suspects in Kazakhstan are held in pre-trial detention centres, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior.
Due to the absence of public control of these centres and police cells, Kazakh human rights defenders and international organisations have reported the use of torture as a method of obtaining confessions. In 2006, pre-trial detention centres held 22,500 people.
In 2005-2007, the British embassy in Astana funded, through the Global Opportunities Fund, a project run by Penal Reform International (PRI) to strengthen national torture and ill treatment prevention mechanisms in Kazakhstan. PRI established a network of public monitoring boards across the country, which were responsible for providing public control of prisons as well as helping victims of torture in the pretrial detention centres and police cells.
As a result, for the first time in Kazakhstan, three police officers were sentenced for torturing suspects in pre-trial detention centres in December 2006 in Petropavlovsk.
This court case opened the way for other cases that started later in 2006 and are continuing. The Ministry of Interior agreed to conduct pilot monitoring in three regions of Kazakhstan and, jointly with PRI, drafted a law on introducing public monitoring of pre-trial detention centres.
Case study two: Mexico
Since 2003 the UK has supported Mexico in its efforts to strengthen its justice system. One of the FCO's key projects in Mexico is related to restorative justice, providing training and guidance in implementing the restorative justice model.
There are now Centres of Alternative Justice operating in the states of Chihuahua, Oaxaca, Aguascalientes and Mexico City. In the first four months of operation, the Centre of Alternative Justice in Chihuahua resolved 3,000 charges. This not only reduced pressure on the judicial system, but also contributed to reducing the prison population, alleviating the conditions that make torture or ill-treatment most likely.
Earlier this year, Miguel was summoned to the Centre of Alternative Justice Tribunal in Oaxaca by a neighbours' petition. Miguel and his friends had been seen painting graffiti and vandalising communal areas in a housing unit. When Miguel presented himself to the centre he found himself in front of a group of people. One in particular, Don Rafael, was very upset by his actions. Don Rafael had suffered damage to the front of his house, which he had shared with his wife of over 40 years, now deceased. He had maintained the house in her memory.
After mediation sessions, Miguel understood the damage he had caused was more than just physical. He apologised, fixed the damage and helped repair the relationship between the residents and the youths.
One year earlier, this case would have gone through a long, complicated process, which possibly would have led to the arrest of Miguel and would not have achieved the same sort of reparation for Don Rafael.
This story is a real life example of the success of restorative justice initiatives in Mexico.
Countries of concern:
- Uzbekistan
- Zimbabwe
- Burma
- Syria
- Democratic People's Republic of Korea