be carried out by competent and impartial experts, who are independent of
the suspected perpetrators and the agency they serve;
have access to all necessary information, budgetary resources and
technical facilities;
have the authority to issue summonses to alleged perpetrators and
witnesses, and to demand the production of evidence;
ensure that those responsible are disciplined or prosecuted;
Medical experts involved in the investigation should comply with the highest
ethical standards and examinations should conform with the principle of
informed consent, be conducted in private and result in a confidential written
report;
The findings of the investigation should be made public;
The alleged victims and their legal representatives should have access to
any hearing and to all information relevant to the investigation;
Investigators should be able to talk to individuals of their choosing in private;
Alleged victims of torture, witnesses, those conducting the investigation and
their families shall be protected from violence, threats of violence or any
other form of intimidation that may arise pursuant to the investigation;
Victims should be provided with reparation and redress including
compensation, medical care and rehabilitation;
Those potentially implicated in torture shall be removed from any position of
control or power, whether direct or indirect, over complainants, witnesses
and their families, as well as those conducting the investigation.314
21. The right to lodge a complaint must be protected in domestic law.315
22. Where investigatory procedures are not adequate, or where it is suspected that
senior officials are implicated in the torture, investigations may be carried out
by an independent commission of inquiry. Such commissions should afford the
individual the minimum procedural international human rights law standards.
The commission’s investigators should receive the necessary resources and
support including access to impartial legal advice and medical expertise.316
23. Any investigation should obtain as much physical evidence as possible,
including through unrestricted access to the place of detention. Evidence
should be correctly collected and handled and include samples, medical
evidence, sketches of the premises, colour photographs, inventories, witness
statements and documents.317
314
CAT Committee Blanco Abad v Spain, ibid; Human Rights Committee, Communication 1416/2005,
Alzery v Sweden, 25 October 2006. Human Rights Committee General Comment No.20, 44 th Session
(1992),. Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol) (1999).
315 Human Rights Committee, General Comment No.20, 44th Session (1992), para 13.
316 Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol) (1999), paras 85-87.
317
Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol) (1999), paras 102-106.
68
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