Article 1. Definition of Torture
49
to the victim’s stomach.127 In one prison, the Committee also considered certain punishments and other forms of ill-treatment, such as handcuffing and shackling for days at
a time, and putting inmates undressed in a freezing, air-conditioned room for days at a
time as torture.128
85 Under the inquiry procedure with respect to Turkey, the Committee found in
1992, that solitary confinement in so-called ‘coffins’, ie inadequately ventilated cells of
60 by 80 centimetres, without light, where the detainee could only stand or crouch,
constituted ‘a kind of torture’.129 Similarly, disciplinary confinement in punishment cells
in Bolivia of the kind known as ‘el bote’ (meaning ‘the can’, being cold and damp cells
measuring 2m by 1.5m, without any beds and sanitation) was, in the Committee’s view,
tantamount to torture as well.130
86 In all of these cases, the Committee did not separately provide any analysis regarding the different elements being fulfilled, but since the Committee found torture,
one may conclude that the treatments outlined were found to cause severe pain or suffering, with the other elements of torture in line with Article 1 being equally fulfilled.
87 The Committee also concluded, without any more detailed analysis, that ‘prolonged detention [3.5 months and 1 month], in a ‘temporary confinement ward’ without
bedding or toiletry items, table, toilet, sink, showers seldom allowed and then only with
cold water, no walks outside the cell, insects in the cell, light always being on, and no
ventilation, as well as food once a day ‘do not appear to have caused “severe pain and suffering” within the meaning of article 1’.131
88 In the inquiry proceedings on Peru, the Committee found that the prison conditions in the El Callao naval base, where six prominent guerrilla leaders served sentences
between thirty years and life imprisonment in complete solitary confinement, amounted
to torture. The prisoners were kept for twenty-three hours a day in isolation cells which
were totally soundproofed against outside noise. For one hour a day they had the right
to go outside, albeit alone, to a small yard surrounded by high walls. Once a month
they were allowed visits by close family members for half an hour. In the view of the
Committee, this sensorial deprivation and the almost total prohibition of communication
caused ‘persistent and unjustified suffering which amounts to torture’.132 The conditions
of detention at the maximum security prisons at Challapalca and Yanamayo, situated in
the Andes of southern Peru at a height of more than 4,500 metres above sea level, with no
electricity and drinking water and temperatures of minus 10° or 15° C without heating,
on the other hand, were however qualified as ‘only’ amounting to cruel and inhuman
treatment and punishment.133 Finally, in a number of places of detention under the authority of the Ministry of Interior, the Committee found that arrested persons may be
127
CAT, ‘Report on Mexico produced by the Committee under Article 20 of the Convention, and Reply
from the Government of Mexico’ (2003) UN Doc CAT/C/75, paras 143–44.
128
CAT/C/75 (n 127) paras 165, 218.
129
See the report in CAT, ‘Summary Account of the Results of the Proceedings Concerning the Inquiry on
Turkey’ (1993) UN Doc A/48/44/Add.1, para 52.
130
CAT, ‘Report of the Committee Against Torture’ (2001) UN Doc A/56/44, para 95 (g). See report of
AI, ‘Bolivia. Torture and Ill-Treatment: Amnesty International’s Concerns’ (2001) 25 <https://www.amnesty.
org/en/documents/AMR18/008/2001/en/> accessed 3 Decemeber 2017.
131
Sergei Kirsanov v Russian Federation, No 478/2011 (n 113) para 11.2.
132
A/56/44 (n 130) paras 185 and 186.
133
ibid, para 183. See also the HRC, which considered the detention conditions only as a violation of
Art 10 CCPR: see Polay Campos v Peru, No 577/1994, UN Doc CCPR/C/61/D/577/1994, 6 November
1997, para 8.4.
Zach
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