Spare a Moment for the Victims of Torture

International Day in Solidarity with Victims of Torture, June 26

From Horror to Healing 
As the world observes June 26 in solidarity with victims of torture, the pervasive existence of torture within India is a crime deserving of the fullest condemnation and punishment. Torture is a pervasive practice that has to be recognised as such and abolished immediately and completely. It goes against India’s international obligations and our Constitution and amounts to a denial of the right to a life with dignity. There must always be assured punishment for perpetrators. For those who survive the humiliating ordeal of torture there must be assured restitution, compensation and rehabilitation. This is the right of every citizen.
 
Attended by lawyers, doctors, activists, academics and representatives of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) that included the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Backward Classes, participants strongly affirmed the repeated demand that India should without further delay ratify the Convention against Torture (CAT). This has been pending since 1997. Adhikar, National Foundation for Dalits, Citizens for Justice and Peace, People’s Watch, PVCHR, SICHREM, NCDHR, Human Rights Alert, HAQ were among the organisations who had co-hosted the initiative.
 
Second, that Parliament immediately enact the Prevention of Torture Bill, incorporating within it the recommendations of the Select Committee of Indian Parliament. This too has been pending since 2010.
 
Third, India must immediately pass comprehensive statutory scheme for reparation and rehabilitation of torture victims.
 
Fourth, India must facilitate the visit of the Special Rapporteur on Torture whose request has been pending for many years.
 
As the world observes today, June 26 in solidarity with victims of torture, the pervasive existence of torture within India and South Asia as a source of continuing threat to the basic right to life and this needs to be recognised and condemned. For those who survive the humiliating ordeal of torture practices, there is denial of a right to a life with dignity. Torture is the systemic use of violence and is a practice that needs to be abolished, completely.
 
Indian criminal jurisprudence and the Indian criminal justice system, despite statutory safeguards and some checks and balances, continues to afford a chilling impunity to the use of torture not just as a means of ‘investigation’ during prolonged periods of incarceration but as a means of humiliation and domination over voiceless and marginalised sections of the population. These include vast sections of the Indian population from states in the north eastern periphery, Jammu and Kashmir, migrant labour, construction workers, workers in the unorganised sector, Adivasis and indigenous peoples, Dalits and India’s religious minorities who bear the additional burden of being often wrongfully associated with acts of terror. Within this women and children are especial targets of these practices. 
 
As India is signatory to the Convention against Disability, that also addresses the issue of disabilities caused by torture, a logical and necessary corollary is that India immediately ratifies CAT.
There is now strong evidence of widespread impunity for illegal and appalling actions as a primary means of investigation when in custody and control of state actors and of torture being used as a means of coercing and subduing dissent amongst voiceless and vulnerable populations. These include large sections in the North Eastern region, Jammu and Kashmir, migrant labour, construction workers, unorganised workers, Adivasis and indigenous peoples, Dalits and India’s religious minorities who bear the additional burden of being often wrongfully associated with acts of terror. Within this women and children are especially vulnerable targets. Indeed, it is seldom recognised that children are victims of torture, often in the name of ‘disciplinary action’ in educational, care and custodial institutions
 
In its comprehensive outcome statement the National Convention appealed to Parliament, state assemblies and the executive to take multiple, specific and practical steps to ensure both the abolition of torture and put in place,at the earliest, effective reparation schemes. It called upon the many monitoring agencies across the country including the courts, special commissions such as the National and state human rights commissions and police complaints authorities to take strong and initiatives required by their mandates to ensure accountability from the perpetrator individuals and institutions. It called upon the police and armed forces in particular to acknowledge the practice and take all steps to eliminate it and punish perpetratos.

 
Appeal by the National Convention to the Media 
Media functions as the fourth pillar of our democracy. We urge it to disseminate the information that there is an absolute prohibition against torture and join in the fight for its elimination. We urge it not to be swayed by shrill slogans of carefully crafted campaigns by perpetrators that are designed to demonise and defame victims and human rights defenders who represent them but to recognise that our Constitutional framework and international obligations require nothing less than the total elimination of  this heinous practice against the rule of law to which India is committed.
 
Detailed Document:
 
Reparation
 
Providing torture victims with access to justice involves two key components: The access to an effective remedy and reparation for the victim. Two decades after India became a signatory to the Convention against Torture it has the obligation to criminalise torture, to investigate all allegations and to prosecute perpetrators.
 
 Reparations broadly comprise the range of individual and collective measures that may be taken to address wrongs suffered by victims of human rights abuses. There are five widely acknowledged forms of reparation: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.

Parliament immediately enact the Prevention of Torture Bill, incorporating within it the recommendations of the Select Committee of Indian Parliament. This too has been pending since 2010.
 
Recognising these factors and deliberating intensively on the National Convention has formulated these issues that need to be recognised and acted upon on, urgently.
 
The aim of rehabilitation is to empower the torture victim to resume as full a life as possible.
Rebuilding the life of someone whose dignity has been destroyed takes time and as a result long-term material, medical, psychological and social support is needed. Rehabilitation should be:

• Holistic, employing different treatment approaches, taking into account the victims’ individual needs, as well as the cultural, social and political environment;
• Available, appropriate, accessible and provided in a way that guarantees the safety and personal integrity of the victims, their family and their caretakers;
• Provided at the earliest possible point in time after the torture event, without a requirement for the victim to pursue judicial remedies, but solely based on recommendations by a qualified health professional;
• Provided in close consultation with the victim and tailored to meet the specific needs of each individual victim;
• Adequately funded by the government.

 
Reparation and Accountability
 
This is a collective responsibility of the Governments, Courts, Human Rights Institutions, Medical and Legal Professionals and Media.
 
Collectively, the Indian Government, Parliament, the NHRIs, especially the NHRC, state governments and the media together have an obligation to address the issue of the widespread culture of impunity around the prevalence of torture as a means of humiliation, subjugation and domination and need to issue advisories, have awareness programmes and trainings within India’s institutions to ensure that this shifts and changes. It is this shift that will help operationalizing the various measures mentioned here.
The Indian Government at the national level and state governments at the provincial levels need to enact a Comprehensive and Statutory Scheme for the Reparation of Victims of Torture.  
 
Central Government
 

1. The Indian Parliament needs to deliberate and actively formulate a Comprehensive and Statutory Scheme for the Reparation of Victims of Torture.
2. India must immediately ratify the Convention against Torture (CAT) and Indian Parliament must discuss and ensure this.
3. Indian Parliament must immediately enact and pass the Prevention of Torture Bill, incorporating within it the recommendations of ICJ and the Select Committee of Indian Parliament.
4. The Indian Parliament must debate and ensure that the Indian Government facilitates the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture at the earliest
5. The Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA) must be amended to bring paramilitary and armed forces under its jurisdiction. Section 19 of the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA) should be repealed to ensure this.
6. Human Rights Courts in all districts must be established as required under the PHRA and the Parliament must debate and ensure this.
7. A Comprehensive and Urgent need for a Witness and Victim Protection programme is essential to guard against the use of Torture. Several judgements of the Supreme Court and Recommendations of the Law Commission urge this; Indian Parliament needs to ensure active and urgent debate on this.
8. Women and children and HRDs: torture in custody should become non-bailable offence
9. The Indian Government and Parliament needs to substantively debate repealing of this statutory impunity for public servants, inserted under colonial rule but which no government has removed from the statute books. Section 197 of the CRPC (except in cases related to monetary corruption has been a persistent hurdle for victims and human rights defenders successfully prosecuting perpetrators of human rights abuses, including torture.
10. This National Convention in Solidarity with Victims of Torture comes in a year when the accreditation of the NHRC will be discussed and debated before the ICC. It is an opportune time to ensure that in terms of composition, action and output this institution that was set up in 1991 with much hope on addressing prevalent human rights standards is assessed with due rigour within the country.
11. Especially relevant to Parliament, that is concerned with the Rule of Law and the Basic Rights and Dignities of the Indian people, are issues related to a) Scrutiny of the composition of the NHRC especially related to presence of police officers within; b)the status and functioning of the Police Complaint Authority (PCA) mandated to accept all complaints on misdemeanours and dispose them of within 180 days

1. State Governments must enact State Laws banning Torture and enact State level Comprehensive and Statutory Schemes for the Reparation of Victims of Torture
2. State Governments must initiate a dialogue with the High Courts in respective states for the Legal Services Authority to set existing bodies up, a special cell within themselves to deal with the cases of torture. This includes that section 41, 41 D, which provides for competent lawyers to be provided for arrestees to be effectively ensured.
3. State Governments must ensure that the recent Maharashtra High Court judgment that directs that all police stations have CCTVs in all police stations is implemented effectively in all states.

1. the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) should without delay issue guidelines on the Prevention of Torture based on the minimum standard of APF. This would be in In keeping with their non-negotiable obligations to promote, propagate and implement international human rights law and standards, NHRIs, most especially
2. A 2010 NHRC Advisory to states against the speedy and effective implementation of the 2009-2010 amendment to section 176 of the CRPC (that ensured that the inquiry/I investigation into custodial deaths must be by a judicial magistrate) needs to be accessed, wily discussed and withdrawn. It is strange and shocking that the NHRC, obliged to prevent the abuse of basic human rights did issue such an advisory and the NHRC needs to assess this at the highest level.
3. The NHRIs, especially the NHRC must actively intervene through actions, statements and advisories to the executive, governments and Parliament to ensure that witness protection and rehabilitation of victims of torture happens in association with civil rights groups, women’s groups and non-governmental organisations.

1. Manufacture of torture tools should be banned.
2. Doctors, forensic officials must be accountable to medical councils and health directorates on the issue of Torture especially in assessing for the police, paramilitary and army the brutal effect of torture practices.