One in ten countries still torture citizens
By John Stephen Katende
1st Nov 2010
A tortured Ugandan man
A staggering one in every ten member states of the United Nations still torture their citizens, a UN rights expert has said.
Addressing Journalists in New York on 26th Oct on what he called the “global crisis of detention”, Mr. Manfred Nowak, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment said he “…estimates that one out of every 10 UN Member State practices torture”.
He said of the 18 countries he had visited in his capacity as Special Rapporteur, all except Denmark carried out torture. He also called for a global convention on the rights of detainees to ensure that their human rights are respected.
He said “…although there are soft law standards on the treatment of detainees, a real binding treaty law that spells out, for instance, that you should have a right for at least one hour a day to leave your cell, to go out to the fresh air, to see the sun” was now necessary.
Earlier this year, the UN Envoy said, he visited Jamaica where he found “…the most appalling conditions…dark cells, filthy, infected with cockroaches and other insects…where many people are kept for 24 hours a day in an overcrowded cell”.
He added that in most countries of the world, conditions in prisons and police custody, as well as [sometimes] in psychiatric institutions and remand centres, “…amount to inhuman and degrading treatment.”
In Uganda, the issue of torture by security agents in “Safe Houses” has once again been brought to the fore by Dr. Olive Kobusinye’s book The Correct Line?, Uganda under Museveni in which she graphically reproduced testimonies of some torture victims she interviewed for the book.
In the book, President Museveni’s Adviser on Media and PR Mr. John Nagenda expressly admitted that “Safe Houses” do exist in Uganda. In some cases, the book also says, female victims had their breast nipples pricked with needles to extract confessions out of them. END. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
