Cyprus: procedures for prisoners to submit complaints confidentially To protect prisoners making a complaint, a number of practical measures have been put in place. Prisoners can communicate a complaint to the Prison’s management via locked complaints boxes available in each Block for the director, without involving any member of staff in the process. Alternatively if prisoners fear that further abuse will take place following the submission of a complaint through the internal procedures, there are two similar locked boxes for complaints to the Ombudsman and the Council of Prisons, to which only the officers of those bodies have access. Germany: personal data protection procedures in place Germany has procedures established in law to provide protection to witnesses. The 1998 Witness Protection Act sets out key provisions including a requirement that the personal data of witnesses is confidential at all stages of criminal proceedings. This has been supplemented by the 2001 Act to Harmonize the Protection of Witnesses at Risk, which also establishes that the personal data of protected witnesses is to be kept confidential within witness protection units and other government and non-state agencies. The files on protected witnesses are maintained by the protection units and are not included in the investigation files, but they are made available to the prosecution on request. Hong Kong SAR, China: a wide range of protection measures available for victims The Hong Kong Police Force has developed a Victim of Crime Charter setting out the rights of victims and guidance for the handling of criminal investigations. Procedures to protect against reprisals include: the right to request consideration of the use of a one-way viewing facility at an identification parade; the use of screens during trials when testimony is being given; enabling victims or witnesses to enter/leave court via special passages; and the use of video-recorded testimony to be given as evidence in court. In serious cases, persons can also request to be considered for inclusion in the Witness Protection Programme. Timor-Leste: protection procedures set out in Criminal Procedure Code In Timor-Leste, Article 57(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code prohibits police and court officers against whom an allegation has been made to contact the victim and there is a procedure to enable officers to be suspended during an investigation into suspected acts of torture or ill-treatment. ODIHR T O O L This tool is to be read in conjunction with OSCE-CTI, UNCAT Implementation Tool 5/2018 Providing rehabilitation to victims and survivors of torture and other ill-treatment. UNCAT Implementation Tool 5/2018 PROVIDING REHABILITATION TO VICTIMS OF TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT All victims of torture have an explicit right to rehabilitation under the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT, Article 14). Rehabilitation should aim to restore, as far as possible, torture victims’ independence, physical, mental, social and vocational ability, as well as their full inclusion and participation in society.1 States have a corresponding duty to provide for as full a rehabilitation as possible, either through the direct provision of rehabilitation services or through funding private medical, legal and other services, including those administered by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).2 This tool provides an overview of how states have implemented the right to rehabilitation through a collection of practices, supplemented with experiences from non-state rehabilitation providers. The practices included in this tool are intended to inspire states to learn from each other and thereby improve implementation at the national level, within the OSCE region and beyond.3 Promising practice examples from the OSCE region and from other parts of the world have been collected to illustrate possible approaches and steps on the way to ensuring torture victims’ right to the fullest possible level of rehabilitation. Their inclusion in the tool does not imply any form of validation of their full compliance with international standards, regional or global relevance and applicability, or superiority to alternative practices applied by other states. 1 UN Committee against Torture’s General Comment No. 3 (2012): Implementation of article 14 by States parties, p.11. 2 Ibid, p.15. 3 All OSCE participating States have ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. These are: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, and Uzbekistan. The CTI ‘UNCAT Implementation Tools’ are a series of practical tools designed to share good practices among States on the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT). They offer thematic guidance and ideas for State practitioners and policymakers as they develop or revise context-specific strategies, mechanisms and procedures to prevent torture and other forms of ill-treatment or punishment, and provide remedies for victims. This Tool – Providing Rehabilitation to Victims of Torture and Other Ill-treatment – has been jointly developed by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Convention against Torture Initiative (CTI). 1/13 TOOL: Complaints and investigations 14/17