Defining the problem
Defining the Problem
Investigative Torture is:
The use of torture during the investigative stage of criminal justice proceedings, often shortly after arrest or initial detention. Torture is used to coerce confessions and often is the simplest means by which to expedite the investigative process.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has observed that it is usually “ordinary people” suspected of “ordinary” crime who are most commonly the victims of torture and other ill-treatment. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, Interim Report on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, A/64/215, submitted to the General Assembly August 3, 2009, at paragraphs 40/41.
Of the nearly ten million people detained globally, those held in pretrial detention face the most significant risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Roy Walmsley, World Prison Population List, eighth edition, January 2009, King’s College London, International Centre for Prison Studies, http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/icps/downloads/wppl-8th_41.pdf.
Pre–trial Detention is:
The detainment of an accused person in a criminal case before the trial has taken place. Though pre-trial detainees have not been found guilty of any crime, they are still deprived of their freedom, either because they cannot afford bail or because bail has been denied. Pre-trial detention exposes countless individuals to horrific conditions and abuse – often for months or years – before any hearing on the merits of their case has been held.
“Excessive and arbitrary pretrial detention is an overlooked form of human rights abuse that affects millions of people each year, causing and deepening poverty, stunting economic development, spreading disease, and undermining the rule of law.” Pretrial Detention and Health: Unintended Consequences, Deadly Results, Open Society Foundations, New York, at p. 5.
In many countries, half of the detainees in the criminal justice system are awaiting trial; in some countries the proportion is over 80 percent. See R. Walmsley, World Pretrial/Remand Imprisonment List (Pretrial detainees and other remand prisoners in all five continents), International Centre for Prison Studies, King’s College, London, 2008 , at www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/icps/downloads/WPTRIL.pdf
“Those entering pretrial detention come from the poorest and most marginalized echelons of society, who are least equipped to deal with the criminal justice process and the experiences of detention”. Salla, Ballesteros, et al., Democracy, Human Rights and Prison Conditions in South America (São Paulo: 2008, Center for the Study of Violence, University of São Paulo.)