New UN report highlights ongoing problem of torture in Afghan detention facilities
20 January 2013 ? Torture remains a serious concern in numerous detention facilities across Afghanistan, despite significant efforts by the Government and international partners to address the problem, according to a new United Nations report released on Sunday.
The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) states that more than half of 635 conflict-related detainees interviewed experienced ill-treatment and torture, particularly in 34 facilities of the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the National Directorate of Security (NDS) between October 2011 and October 2012.
Torture took the form of abusive interrogation techniques in which Afghan officials inflicted severe pain and suffering on detainees during interrogations aimed mainly at obtaining a confession or information, UNAMA stated in a news release. Fourteen methods of torture and ill-treatment were described similar to practices previously documented by the Mission.
?The Government's attention and efforts to address these abusive practices are visible and encouraging, and have produced some positive results but the system isn't robust enough to eliminate ill-treatment of detainees,? said Jan Kubis, the Secretary-General's Special Representative and head of UNAMA. ?Clearly, more needs to be done to end and prevent torture.?
Among other measures to improve detention practices, the Government carried out training programmes on prevention of the ill-treatment of detainees, issued policy directives, increased the number of inspections and reassigned personnel.
The Mission noted that while both the NDS and the Ministry of Interior stated that they investigated allegations of ill-treatment, it is unclear whether any of these internal probes resulted in the prosecution or loss of jobs of Afghan officials for involvement in torturing detainees or for having failed to prevent torture.
?UNAMA found a persistent lack of accountability for perpetrators of torture with few investigations and no prosecutions for those responsible,? said Georgette Gagnon, Director of Human Rights for UNAMA.
?The findings highlight that torture cannot be addressed by training, inspections and directives alone but requires sound accountability measures to stop and prevent its use. Without deterrents and disincentives to use torture, including a robust, independent investigation process, criminal prosecutions and courts' consistent refusal to accept confessions gained through torture, Afghan officials have no incentive to stop torture.? ...
