October 26, 2016–Last week, Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez presented his last thematic report before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. The report calls on States to develop a universal set of standards for non-coercive interviewing methods and procedural safeguards aiming to ensure that no person is subjected to torture, ill-treatment, or coercion during questioning.
“Persons interviewed by authorities during criminal or other investigations may be confronted with the entire repressive machinery of society,” the Special Rapporteur stated, adding that “questioning, particularly of suspects, is inherently associated with risks of intimidation, coercion, and mistreatment. But scientific data and irrefutable evidence from the criminal justice system demonstrate that coercive methods of questioning, even when not amounting to torture, produce unreliable information and false confessions, and are indeed counterproductive for public safety, Moreover, torture, ill-treatment, and coercion have devastating long-term consequences on individuals, institutions, and society as a whole. Ultimately, torture only breeds more crime by fuelling hatred and a desire for vengeance.”
“My report seeks to promote the development of standards and guidelines on non-coercive interview methods and other procedural safeguards, that ought, as a matter of law and policy, to be applied at a minimum to all interviews by law enforcement officials, military and intelligence personnel, and other bodies with investigative mandates,” the Special Rapporteur said. Such protocol “must design a model that promotes effective, ethical, and non-coercive interviewing and is centered on the principles of presumption of innocence and the pursuit of truth. In this way, States will not only enhance the degree to which their interviewing methods comply with human rights standards, but also their effectiveness in solving crime and keeping societies safe,” the Special Rapporteur concluded.
A VIDEO of the presentation and interactive dialogue with States before the Third Committee is available here: http://webtv.un.org/…/third-committee-19th-m…/5175313119001…
A press release about the Special Rapporteur’s report is available here:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx…
You can read the Special Rapporteur’s report here: http://antitorture.org/…/2016/09/Report_A-71-298_English.pdf