Legal and procedural safeguards that accompany and encourage effective interviewing include:
o Notification of a suspect’s rights
o Prompt access to a lawyer
o Independent medical examination
o Communication with a family member or third party
o Audio and video recording of interviews
o Time limits on interviewing, breaks where needed, and judicial oversight of detention promptly after arrest
o Keeping records of detention (including the duration)
Effective safeguards are explained in more detail in CTI’s UNCAT Implementation Tool 2/2017 on “Safeguards
in the first hours of police detention”.
Fiji: duty lawyers explain rights to arrested persons
Through Fiji’s “first hour procedure” pilot project, being rolled out in the capital Suva, police officers defer
interviews with suspects until a lawyer from the Legal Aid Commission has been notified within the first hour of
their arrest or detention. Lawyers are rostered on an on-call basis and, upon arrival to the police station, they are
trained to inform suspects of their rights, allowing them to make an informed decision as to whether to retain or
waive their right to counsel.
Indonesia: investigative interviewing underpinned by legislative enactments
In accordance with Law 8/1981 of the Criminal Code Procedure, Regulation 58/2010 and Chief of Indonesian
National Police’s regulation 14/2012 on investigation management, Indonesia’s police have adopted rapportbuilding investigation techniques and the roll-out and training on the techniques continue. Indonesia’s POAC
approach (which stands for Planning, Organizing, Actuating, Controlling/evaluating) is Indonesia’s version
of rapport-building interrogation, takes into account the health, status and condition of the person to be
interviewed, and mandates information being provided on their right to a lawyer.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: e-recording of interviews reduces allegations and court
time
The Interviewing of Suspects for Serious Crimes Act of 2012 (replacing non-mandatory administrative guidelines
contained in the Judges’ Rules, common in Commonwealth Caribbean States) requires the mandatory recording
of police interviews, prompt access to a lawyer and notification of the suspect or accused’s relatives of his/her
arrest or detention. These safeguards have significantly reduced requests by defence lawyers to have recourse to
voir dire proceedings (an internal court process used in common law countries where the admissibility of evidence
is contested), as there is a record of the interview conduct, thus also reducing the time and expense of the trial
process, and lowering the risk that evidence will be collected by torture or other abuse (and/or the risk of false
allegations of torture) by removing one of the key incentives.
TOOL: Non-admission of evidence obtained by torture and ill-treatment
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