Reports
Cairo: April 2003

Introduction    Section one   Section two: Part One  Section Two: Part two  Part three      

EOHR’s Campaign Against Torture

“Torture Should Be Stopped”

Section three:

EOHR issues this report on torture reiterating the fact that it is a blatant violation of the rights to life, personal security and bodily safety. Committed by police, who are responsible for maintaining public safety, torture leaves the citizenry in a perpetual state of fear as anyone may be tortured/killed next.  Acts of torture violate both Egyptian law, International Instruments on Human Rights and the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, among other conventions.

EOHR welcomes the proposal submitted to amend Article 126 of the Penal Code so that Egyptian law conforms to the International Convention Against Torture.  Inasmuch as this step is positive, we remind our readership that it is merely one step of many that should be taken (and that have been recommended by EOHR) to stop torture.  Other recommendations we would like authorities to consider are the following:

v     Taking effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture and allow for no exceptional circumstances whatsoever to be invoked as a justification of torture.  (This is a recommendation in Article 2 of the International Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and Article 3 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment);

v     Ensuring that all acts of torture are offences under criminal law.  The same shall apply to attempts to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture.  (This, too, is a recommendation issued in Article 4 of the International Convention Against Torture, and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and Article 7 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment);

v     Keeping under systematic review interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices as well as arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment in any territory under its jurisdiction, with a view to preventing any cases of torture (This is the same as Article 11 of the same convention.);

v     Ensuring that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made.  (This is the same as Article 15 of the International Convention Against Torture, and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and Article 12 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.)

v     Ensuring that competent authorities proceed with a prompt and impartial investigation wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction.  (This recommendation is the same as Article 12 of the International Convention against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and Article 9 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.)

v     Ensuring that the victim shall be afforded redress and compensation in accordance with national law.  (This is the same as Article 14 of the International Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and Article 11 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.)

EOHR also recommends that following:

v     That the Egyptian legislature ratifies Articles 21 and 22 of the International Convention Against Torture, which would permit the UN Committee Against Torture to take up complaints brought to it by state parties to the Convention or Individuals.

If Egypt ratifies these two articles, this would be evidence that authorities have nothing to fear in the future concerning their commitment to incriminating torture and ill treatment in prisons and other places of detention.

v     Issue legislation acknowledging the right of civil plaintiffs to litigate directly before the Criminal Court crimes involving aggression on personal freedoms, or the violation of the sanctity of the right to privacy. It includes, inter alia, crimes provided for in Article 126 of the Penal Code, penalizing anyone subjecting an accused person to torture for purposes of forcing confessions (this is in addition to Articles 280 and 282, which penalize the act of wrongful, unlawful arrests).

v     Abolish Law 121/1956 pertaining to the amendment of Article 63 of the Law on Criminal Procedures. This law confines the right to litigate against public and civil servants (including police officers) and complaining against one to a public prosecutor or investigative judge (who has discretion to accept the complaint or not).  Recourse, like appealing a denial of a request to complain against an officer, should be available to victims of torture;

v     Investigation by the public prosecutors of complaints they receive against individuals and/or organizations on aggression taking place in prisons and other places where people are tortured;

v     Creation of an independent and impartial body consisting of judges, lawyers and doctors who will examine all allegations of torture taking place in police stations and helping to bring about justice to those involved. This committee must be given access to all detention places and necessary information and be allowed to interview victims. Its role should not be confined to the law but should also include political, social and psychological implications of torture.  Lastly, they should formulate practical measures to help reduce and eventually eliminate torture; 

v     Establish well-defined standards and instructions to monitor the performance of police officers, especially investigative officers. These standards shall be separated from the extent to which they reach perpetrators of crimes they investigate. The reason behind this is that the link between finding perpetrators and keeping one’s position as a police officer sometimes causes the latter group to encroach upon citizen’s freedoms;

v     Organizing training and educational sessions for police, especially those in the criminal investigation departments, on the treatment of detainees in police stations. They must be trained to respect human dignity and the basic rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Egyptian Constitution, other laws and international human rights treaties ratified by Egypt. These sessions should balance the human rights course already introduced in the police academy curriculum and all other institutions teaching and training officers;   

v     Recognizing (authorities, that is) and cooperate with human rights organizations by conducting prompt investigations into their appeals to the Ministry of Interior and Public Prosecution. Also, they must provide these organizations with information on cases and the results of their investigations, and enable the representatives of these organizations to visit prisons and other places of detention to monitor human rights conditions.