PRESS RELEASE
AHRC-PL-105-2004

New U.N. rapporteur urged to intervene in Asia torture cases

(Hong Kong, December 3, 2004) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has called on a new U.N. human rights envoy to intervene in cases of torture in Asia to help save the victims and ensure them legal redress for the rights violations that they suffer.  

Special effort should be made to tackle the routine practice of torture by police in the region, the Hong Kong-based regional rights body urged.

In a letter to Professor Manfred Nowak, the new special rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on the question of torture, the AHRC noted that torture victims in Asia often received no help despite the fact that their countries had ratified the international convention against torture and other U.N. instruments.

"Due to the extreme limitations of legal redress that can be found within the local context, all the interventions that are made by the U.N. rapporteur on the question of torture matter a very great deal," Basil Fernando, executive director of the AHRC, said in the letter.

"Very often, investigations into torture cases only take place after the U.N. rapporteur makes such an intervention. Thus, the enormous influence that your position carries in order to, very often, save lives and ensure legal redress to the victims of torture, cannot in fact be exaggerated," Fernando said.

The use of torture in Asia is endemic. The issue of police torture always goes on unchallenged as the concern is usually directed at civil and military conflicts with emergency situations, the AHRC said.

"However, given the context of 'less developed countries' particularly in the context of Asia, the routine torture that is taking place at police stations needs to be addressed if the convention against torture is to be implemented successfully," Fernando said.

In many countries in the region, criminal investigations are slow and often do not take place, particularly when state officers are accused of torture, the rights group noted.

The victims and human rights organisations always find it difficult to pursue their fight for redress.

For example, in Sri Lanka, torture is widespread and its perpetrators have impunity, as evident in the recent killing of Gerald Perera, a victim of police torture who was shot 10 days before he was to testify against his perpetrators in a criminal case in court.

In other cases in Sri Lanka, victims have been subjected to torture repeatedly after they complained about violations of their rights. There are also victims reportedly forced to sign a suicide note and a statement to withdraw their complaints against torture.

Those non-governmental organisations that have been working to combat torture have also been confronted with increasing hostility from the police authorities in Sri Lanka.

The AHRC said its work for the elimination of torture depended very much on the support from the U.N. system and the international community.

The group also called on Nowak to ensure that the position of "absolute prohibition against torture" should be upheld not only in developing countries, but also in nations that "wield great powers" throughout the world.

"Knowing your long involvement in the defence of human rights, we feel assured that you will make the contribution that is needed on this issue during your tenure," the AHRC told the new rapporteur.

Nowak, a professor of constitutional law and human rights at the University of Vienna and director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, has succeeded Dr. Theo van Boven as the special rapporteur on torture from Wednesday.

The mandate of the special rapporteur covers all countries, irrespective of whether a state has ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

The rapporteur can gather information from governmental and non-governmental sources, make urgent appeals to states to clarify the situation with regard to individuals reported to be at risk of torture, carry out fact-finding country visits and submit annual reports on his activities to the U.N. human rights commission and the General Assembly.

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About AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.