The Commission for the Prevention of Torture has begun its work
By a decree of the President of Ukraine at the end of September, a Commission for the Prevention of Torture was created, and by another decree on 18 November, its composition of 35 people was formed. It is headed by Andriy Portnov, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration. The Commission includes representatives of human rights organisations, lawyers, scientists, and people’s deputies. The main task of the Commission is to facilitate the creation of a national preventive mechanism for the prevention of torture, which Ukraine committed to establishing in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture. The first meeting of the Commission took place at the beginning of December. Currently, its members are discussing the format of their future work and are trying to determine priority steps.
Can and will the members of the Commission respond to specific cases of possible torture? Should they respond? The majority of the Commission’s members are inclined to say yes, they will respond to such cases. However, what measures will they be able to take? How should they draw up reports on visits? How should they verify the authenticity of reports? Furthermore, there are concerns that the members of the Commission will not be able to respond to all appeals made to them. What about this? These questions for the members of the Commission remain open and require specification.
Today in Ukraine, there is no effective mechanism for the prevention of torture; the perpetrators of such treatment very often remain unpunished, judges do not take into account the claims of defendants that torture was applied to them, believing that they wish to avoid responsibility for allegedly committed crimes in this way. The Prosecutor’s Office carries out investigations into such reports only formally. And although there are already several dozen decisions of the European Court of Human Rights regarding Ukraine’s violation of the European Convention on Human Rights during investigations — or rather, the lack of investigation — into reports of ill-treatment, alas, the practice remains unchanged.
Will the Commission be able to influence the situation in police stations, colonies, and other places of confinement where cases of torture or ill-treatment occur or may occur? And there are quite a few such places in Ukraine. In the State Penitentiary Service alone, there are more than 180 institutions in which convicts and persons under investigative arrest are held; in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are about five hundred temporary detention centres. Places of confinement include more than one hundred and fifty boarding schools, psychiatric hospitals, and there are detention facilities under the border guards and in the army. Of course, the Commission’s forces will not be enough to cover even a hundredth part of such places. Why, then, was the Commission created?
The main task of the Commission is to facilitate the creation of a mechanism for the prevention of torture. Who exactly, in what way, and through what procedures will visit the places of confinement? How will experts be selected to participate in such visits? Where will the reports of the participants in the visits be sent? From what sources will the activities of such experts be funded? The members of the Commission will have to find answers to these and other questions. Will they be able to? How long will they be searching for these answers?
The near future will show to what extent this Commission will prove capable of solving the tasks set before it and whether it will be able to influence the situation regarding the treatment of citizens in places of confinement.
Aleksandr Bukalov, member of the Commission