MANILA, Philippines -- The lack of a law criminalizing torture has been twice victimizing Filipino torture victims who “have been waiting for redress and a legal tool they can use to prosecute their torturers,” a Hong Kong-based human rights group said.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) accused security forces of regularly resorting to torture and bewailed the “lack of legal remedies” for the victims.

It said “the continued failure by the government to enact enabling laws against torture casts serious doubts on its ability to uphold the highest standards of human rights as a newly re-elected member of the UN Human Rights Council.”

The AHRC also said it was “inexcusable” that a country which signed and ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) has failed “to ensure that domestic laws exist to give meaning to the provisions of CAT.”

“It is a fact of life that the use of torture by the police and military as methods of criminal investigation and punishment is endemic in the country,” the group said. “What is shocking is the negligible effort to eradicate torture or the lack of legal remedies available to victims and their legal counsel to challenge these illegal practices employed by the security forces.”

It said the absence of a law against torture “in essence, reflects tolerance for torture by all three branches of government.”

“There is little apparent concern for the lack of accountability of the security forces that are accused of torture,” it said. “Suspects consequently can be tortured with impunity. It also sends a strong message to victims that redress and prosecution of those responsible for torturing them is difficult [and] almost unachievable.”

“Often the burden to prove the use of torture rests with the victims themselves, not with those who violently abused them,” the AHRC said.

And in cases where complaints are filed, the AHRC said these invariably take years, “for instance, 11 years in one case,” often without any clear resolution. Thus, many of those accused of torture “are able to retire or commit similar offences again and again without being held accountable for their violent actions.”

“Some public prosecutors have even argued that it is normal for suspects to claim they were tortured, thus, in effect, implying that anyone who makes such an accusation is not trustworthy,” it added.

The AHRC also faulted prosecutors for failing to “comprehend the significance of having a law against torture.”

It noted that prosecutors argue the Constitution already prohibits torture even when “they know that in order to give meaning to this constitutional provision it requires an enabling law that defines torture as a criminal act and provides adequate remedies.”

However, it also noted that “this mentality is endemic…not only among prosecutors but also the public.”

People’s “understanding of torture is so flawed,” it said, “that it has subconsciously become an acceptable practice, a normal part of criminal investigations.”

“Brutality and cruelty in police stations and military camps against any person suspected of committing a crime, in their view, deserve to be tortured,” the AHRC said. “As a result of this attitude, the basic foundation of criminal justice -- the presumption of innocence -- is diluted and becomes irrelevant.”

It said in one case in which the Commission on Human Rights concluded that torture was involved -- that of the Abadilla Five, who were eventually sentenced to death for the killing of police officer Rolando Abadilla -- “justice for torture victims is absent” and “no action has been taken” against the suspected torturers.

The AHRC said the lack of a law to punish torture has bred “an unwillingness on the part of torture victims to pursue a case in court.”

“The victims are forced to accept these harsh realities, and the government has continually failed to ensure that torture victims attain justice; the government, indeed, has ultimately neglected them,” it added.

Link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=73037

24 June 2007