CAT/C/ESP/CO/5
to guarantee the rights of persons detained or in police custody. While this is in principle a
positive step, the Committee considers that the normative status of this instruction to
strengthen guarantees is insufficient (art. 2).
The State party should regulate these matters, which concern fundamental rights such
as the right to liberty and to physical integrity, by means of an appropriate regulation,
and not merely a decision communicated by a Secretariat of State to its staff.
3.
Incommunicado detention
12.
The Committee takes note of the steps taken to improve the guarantees of
individuals held in incommunicado detention, particularly: (a) the so-called “Garzón
Protocol”, which provides for visits by a doctor trusted by the detainee (even though this
Protocol has not been applied uniformly); (b) Measure 97 (c) of the Human Rights Plan,
which stipulates that an individual held in incommunicado detention may be examined by
another doctor affiliated with the public health system, freely appointed by the future
national mechanism for the prevention of torture, as well as by a forensic doctor; and (c)
Measure 97 (b) which — in accordance with various recommendations by international
human rights bodies — provides that the State party shall adopt the necessary legal and
technical measures to record, using video-recording or other audiovisual equipment, the
entire period that individuals spend in incommunicado detention in police stations. The
Committee is also pleased to note the commitment made in Measure 97 (a) to expressly
forbid the use of incommunicado detention for minors. Nonetheless, the Committee must
reiterate its concern — shared by all relevant regional and international human rights bodies
— that the system of incommunicado detention used by the State party for offences
involving terrorists or armed gangs, which may last for up to 13 days, undermines the
guarantees of the rule of law in respect of ill-treatment and acts of torture. The Committee
is especially concerned about the restrictions that incommunicado detention places on the
access to and exercise of the fundamental rights and guarantees universally applied to
persons deprived of their liberty (art. 2).
The State party must review incommunicado detention with a view to its abolition,
and ensure that all persons deprived of their liberty have access to the following
fundamental rights of detainees:
(a)
To consult a lawyer of their choice;
(b)
To be examined by a doctor of their choice;
(c)
To have a family member or person of their choice notified of their
arrest and current place of detention;
(d)
To meet privately with a lawyer (a right which is currently restricted
even in the case of a court-appointed lawyer).
The State party should also implement and strengthen the measures provided for in
Measure 97 of the Human Rights Plan; in this respect, it is especially important that
the video surveillance system covers all police stations nationwide and is installed in
cells and interrogation rooms and is not limited to public areas.
4.
Non-refoulement
13.
The Committee takes note of the State party’s position that diplomatic guarantees do
not contravene the provisions of article 3 of the Convention – if, for example, additional
supervisory mechanisms are established which are expressly accepted and observed by the
country concerned. In this regard, the Committee wishes to reiterate its previously stated
position, that under no circumstances must diplomatic guarantees be used as a safeguard
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