E/CN.4/1993/26
page 130
when it said: "Article 10, paragraph 1, imposes on States parties a positive
obligation towards persons who are particularly vulnerable because of their
status as persons deprived of their liberty, and complements for them the ban
on torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
contained in article 7 of the Covenant". The Committee added that respect for
the dignity of persons deprived of their liberty must be guaranteed under the
same conditions as for free persons and that detainees should enjoy all the
rights set forth in the Covenant, subject to the restrictions that are
unavoidable in a closed environment.
585. With regard to article 7, it is remarkable but hardly surprising that the
Committee emphasizes that States parties have specific obligations to prevent
and suppress the occurrence of torture in wording which, nearly to the letter,
concurs with recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur over and over
again.
586. According to the Committee, enforcement personnel, medical personnel,
police officers and any other persons involved in the custody or treatment of
any individual subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment must
receive appropriate instruction and training. With regard to detention
conditions, the Committee remarks that provisions should be made for detainees
to be held in places officially recognized as places of detention and for
their names and places of detention, as well as for the names of persons
responsible for their detention, to be kept in registers readily available and
accessible to those concerned, including relatives and friends. Likewise with
regard to interrogation procedures, the Committee finds that the time and
place of all interrogations should be recorded, together with the names of all
those present and that this information should also be available for purposes
of judicial or administrative proceedings. The Committee stresses the
necessity for doctors and lawyers and, under appropriate supervision when the
investigation so requires, family members to be given prompt and regular
access to the detainees. Incommunicado detention, therefore, should be
forbidden.
587. The Committee is of the opinion that the law must prohibit the use or
admissibility in judicial proceedings of statements or confessions obtained
through torture or other prohibited treatment, a prohibition which is also
contained in article 15 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
588. The Committee further states that those who violate article 7, whether by
encouraging, ordering, tolerating or perpetrating prohibited acts, must be
held responsible and that victims should have the right to lodge complaints,
which must be investigated promptly and impartially by competent authorities,
and that they are entitled to appropriate redress.
589. Without exception, these measures have been recommended by the Special
Rapporteur. If each and every State took such measures and vigorously
supervised their implementation by the various branches of State authority, no
torturer could do his dirty work in the expectation that he could evade
punishment. For it is impunity which makes torture attractive and feasible.
Far too often the Special Rapporteur receives information that persons have
been kept in so-called "safe-houses", that they were hooded or blindfolded
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