Overview of anti-torture legislation in Latin America and the Caribbean
In Mexico, the new anti-torture law (2017) foresees different penalties ranging from
10 years to 20 years if the offender is a public actor and between 6 years to 12 years
if the offender is a private actor.
f.
The criminalization of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment
(CIDTP)
States are free to criminalise CIDTP as a separate crime. However, if opting to do so, it is
often recommended to keep the definition separate from the notion of torture77. The
following examples illustrate the different approaches States have taken to criminalizing
CIDTP:
Chile recognizes unlawful coercion and ill-treatment as
offences under article 150 D of the Criminal Code. This
article stipulates that ill-treatment and unlawful coercion
should be understood as those acts that would not
necessarily fall within the concept of torture. Penalties
are foreseen up to 3 years.
In Colombia, the Criminal Code does not provide for a
definition of CIDTP. Nevertheless, article 146 of the
APT/CTI Guide on antitorture legislation
Page: 25
Optional element
National legislation
criminalises cruel,
inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.
Criminal Code imposes penalties (up to 15 years of
imprisonment) for the commission of CIDTP during armed conflict. In addition,
article 166 includes CIDTP as an aggravating circumstance in the crime of enforced
disappearance and enforced displacement.
In Uruguay, Article 22.2 of Law N° 18 026 stipulates that CIDPT are acts of torture.
In Ecuador the infliction of CIDTP is limited to circumstances under armed conflict.
The penalty is imprisonment up to 16 years.
In Mexico, the new anti-torture law provides that if any public official in the exercise
of his/her functions, and as a measure of intimidation, punishment or for reasons
based on discrimination, abuses, humiliates, degrades, or insults a person, the public
official shall be punished with imprisonment. The crime of CIDTP bears a penalty of
between 3 months to 3 years. 78
77
78
APT/CTI, Guide on anti-torture legislation, (2016), p. 26.
Article 29, General Law to Prevent, Investigate and Punish Torture (2017).
16