CAT/C/SRB/CO/2
The Committee urges the State party to abide by its commitment to reinforce the
human and material resources of the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor and
remove the current barriers to the prosecution of crimes under international law,
including torture, by, inter alia:
(a)
Ensuring that all persons, including senior and middle-ranking officials,
suspected of having been complicit in, and perpetrators of, war crimes and crimes
against humanity are brought to justice;
(b)
Undertaking prompt, effective and impartial investigations into
allegations of ill-treatment by members of the War Crimes Prosecutor;
(c)
Strengthening the War Crimes Prosecutor and its protocols as well as
the procedural rules for the examination of protected witnesses to ensure the highest
standard of protection for the witnesses and their families.
Conditions of detention
12.
While welcoming the measures taken to reduce overcrowding and improve the
material conditions and access to health care in places of detention (see paras. 6 (d) and
7 (c) and (d) above), the Committee is concerned that overcrowding in correctional
facilities remains above 116 per cent, and takes note of information about poor detention
conditions, particularly in police stations, a lack of meaningful activities and interaction
between persons in detention, and insufficient health-care services, including mental health
care, in prisons. The Committee is also concerned at information that the judiciary
continues to favour incarceration measures and pretrial detention over alternative measures
of detention, despite the efforts made by the State party to encourage the use of less
restrictive measures. It remains concerned at the high number of deaths in custody,
including suicides, as well as the incidents of inter-prisoner violence. The Committee also
notes with concern information that “non-standard issue objects” are still occasionally
found in rooms used for police interviews (arts. 2, 11 and 16).
The State party should continue its efforts to improve the conditions of detention in
places of detention, in particular by:
(a)
Implementing effectively the measures designed to eliminate
overcrowding, particularly through the wider application of non-custodial measures
as an alternative to imprisonment, in the light of the United Nations Standard
Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules);
(b)
Fully implementing the recommendations of the national preventive
mechanism, including by improving access to health care and ensuring full access to
mental health-care services within all prison facilities and increasing the professional
and recreational activities of persons in detention;
(c)
Ensuring that all incidents of death, suicide, attempted suicide and
violence in custody are reported to central authorities for monitoring purposes
and that all cases are effectively and independently investigated and, on a finding of
criminal responsibility, lead to a penalty proportional to the gravity of the offence.
The State party should also ensure enhanced audio-video monitoring of interrogation
rooms in police stations and prisons; detection and monitoring of at-risk detainees,
adopting preventive measures regarding the risk of suicide and inter-prisoner
violence, including by increasing the number of prison staff; and the ongoing
monitoring of the storage of “non-standard issue objects”.
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