Ecuador: Right to medical certificate in prosecution/judicial police investigative procedures
Chapter V on ‘detention procedures’ of the Manual of the Prosecution Service and Judicial Police Investigative
Procedure in Ecuador stipulates that any person arrested by order of the competent authority or in flagrante
delicto (that is, in the act of committing a crime) shall, once he/she has been taken to and registered at the
corresponding police station or unit, be transferred to a forensic medicine unit or a health centre, where a medical
certificate shall be obtained and attached to the police report.
Kyrgyz Republic: practical guidance issued for medical practitioners
In December 2014, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Health approved ‘Practical Guidance on Effective Medical
Documentation of Violence, Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment’
(updated in December 2015). In the event that a patient complains of violence, torture or ill-treatment, the
guidance requires doctors to undertake a special medical examination (in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol),
and file a copy of the report to the police within 24 hours.
Mexico: Istanbul Protocol domestication
To assist with standardisation of documentation
of cases of torture, the Attorney General’s Office
issued agreement number A/057/2003, published
in the Federal Official Gazette of Mexico, providing
for the compulsory application by forensic doctors
and medical examiners of the so-called “Medical/
Psychological Specialist Opinion for cases of
possible torture and/or ill-treatment”. This is a
standardised forensic medical document designed
to assist expert investigations into prima facie cases
of torture.
“
If, in the course of examining a prisoner
upon admission or providing medical
care to the prisoner thereafter, healthcare professionals become aware of any
signs of torture or other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment, they
shall document and report such cases to
the competent medical, administrative or
judicial authority…”
United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for
the Treatment of Prisoners, ‘the Mandela Rules’
(2015), Rule 34
See for further examples of good practices,
CTI’s UNCAT Implementation Tool: Providing
rehabilitation to victims of torture and other illtreatment, 5/2018
Philippines: right to medical examination
in anti-torture legislation
The Philippines’ Anti-Torture Act of 2009 provides
for the right of persons arrested, detained or under
custodial investigation to have a physical and/or
psychological evaluation contained in a medical report,
which shall be considered a public document following
applicable protocol.
TOOL: Non-admission of evidence obtained by torture and ill-treatment
“
National medical associations should
support the adoption of “ethnical rules and
legislative provisions … aimed at affirming
the ethical obligation on physicians to
report or denounce acts of torture or cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment of which
they are aware …”
World Medical Association, resolution on the
responsibility of physicians in the documentation
and denunciation of acts of torture or cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment, adopted 2003,
amended 2007, operative para. 9
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