CHAPTER IV GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR INTERVIEWS (d) Correlate the degree of consistency between individual examination findings with the knowledge of torture methods used in a particular region and their common after-effects; 120. When a person who has allegedly been tortured is interviewed, there are a number of issues and practical factors that have to be taken into consideration. These considerations apply to all persons carrying out interviews, whether they are lawyers, medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, human rights monitors or members of any other profession. The following section takes up this “common ground” and attempts to put it into contexts that may be encountered when investigating torture and interviewing victims of torture. A. (e) Render expert interpretation of the findings of medical-legal evaluations and provide expert opinion regarding possible causes of abuse in asylum hearings, criminal trials and civil proceedings; (f) Use information obtained in an appropriate manner to enhance fact-finding and further documentation of torture. Purpose of inquiry, examination and documentation B. 121. The broad purpose of the investigation is to establish the facts related to alleged incidents of torture (see chapter III, sect. D). Medical evaluations of torture may be useful evidence in legal contexts such as: Procedural safeguards with respect to detainees 123. Forensic medical evaluation of detainees should be conducted in response to official written requests by public prosecutors or other appropriate officials. Requests for medical evaluations by law enforcement officials are to be considered invalid unless they are requested by written orders of a public prosecutor. Detainees themselves, their lawyers or relatives, however, have the right to request a medical evaluation to seek evidence of torture and ill-treatment. The detainee should be taken to the forensic medical examination by officials other than soldiers and police since torture and ill-treatment may have occurred in the custody of these officials and, therefore, that would place unacceptable coercive pressures on the detainee or the physician not to document torture or illtreatment effectively. The officials who supervise the transportation of the detainee should be responsible to the public prosecutors and not to other law enforcement officials. The detainee’s lawyer should be present during the request for examination and post-examination transport of the detainee. Detainees have the right to obtain a second or alternative medical evaluation by a qualified physician during and after the period of detention. (a) Identifying the perpetrators responsible for torture and bringing them to justice; (b) Support of political asylum applications; (c) Establishing conditions under which false confessions may have been obtained by State officials; (d) Establishing regional practices of torture. Medical evaluations may also be used to identify the therapeutic needs of survivors and as testimony in human rights investigations. 122. The purpose of the written or oral testimony of the physician is to provide expert opinion on the degree to which medical findings correlate with the patient’s allegation of abuse and to communicate effectively the physician’s medical findings and interpretations to the judiciary or other appropriate authorities. In addition, medical testimony often serves to educate the judiciary, other government officials and the local and international communities on the physical and psychological sequelae of torture. The examiner should be prepared to do the following: 124. Each detainee must be examined in private. Police or other law enforcement officials should never be present in the examination room. This procedural safeguard may be precluded only when, in the opinion of the examining doctor, there is compelling evidence that the detainee poses a serious safety risk to health personnel. Under such circumstances, security personnel of the health facility, not the police or other law enforcement officials, should be available upon the medical examiner’s request. In such cases, security personnel should still remain out of earshot (i.e. be only within visual contact) of the patient. Medical evaluation of detainees should be conducted at a location that the physician deems most (a) Assess possible injury and abuse, even in the absence of specific allegations by individuals, law enforcement or judicial officials; (b) Document physical and psychological evidence of injury and abuse; (c) Correlate the degree of consistency between examination findings and specific allegations of abuse by the patient; 25