E/CN.4/1989/15
page 1
I. INTRODUCTION
1.
At its forty-first session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted
resolution 1985/33, by which it decided to appoint a special rapporteur to
examine questions relevant to torture.
2.
On 12 May 1985, the Chairman of the Commission appointed
Mr. Peter Kooijmans (Netherlands) Special Rapporteur who, in pursuance of
Commission resolutions 1986/50 and 1987/29, submitted reports (E/CN.4/198 6/15
and E/CN.4/19 87/13) to the Commission at its forty-second and forty-third
sessions respectively.
3.
At its forty-forth session, the Commission had before it the third report
of the Special Rapporteur (E/CN.4/1988/17 and Add.l) and adopted resolution
1988/32, by which it decided to continue the mandate of the Special Rapporteur
for two years, in order to enable him to submit further conclusions and
recommendations to the Commission at its forty-fifth and forty-sixth
sessions. The Economic and Social Council endorsed that resolution by
decision 1988/130.
4.
In submitting his fourth report to the Commission, the Special Rapporteur
cannot but conclude that torture is still rampant in various parts of the
world. Hopeful developments in some countries are counterbalanced by
depressing deteriorations in other. The Special Rapporteur has been confirmed
in his opinion, already expressed in previous reports, that situations of
civil strife and civil war are particularly conducive to the practice of
torture. He has received an alarming amount of information with respect to
such situations, revealing a pattern of routinely practised torture and
ill-treatment by both parties to such conflicts. In these situations it is
generally the local population which is the main victim. Pressed and
terrorized by guerrilla movements to provide support and furnish them with
food and shelter they are suspected immediately by the security forces of
having done so. Thus pressure and violence are used by the security forces to
extract confessions and information from them. In the bitterness of the
struggle for political power, the universally recognized rights of the
individual are considered to be a matter of low priority, indeed almost
trivial, to which none of the parties can afford to attach importance, since
higher interests are at stake.
5.
The majority of the allegations received by the Special Rapporteur deal
with torture practised under circumstances such as those just described.
Since the prohibition of torture concerns a human right which is explicitly
mentioned in article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights as a right from which no derogation may be made in tines of public
emergency, the Special Rapporteur feels that Governments have a special
responsibility to investigate such allegations and to take all appropriate
measures to prevent torture being practised by government agents. The often
undeniable fact that torture is used by the opposing forces can never justify
similar practices by security forces. Therefore, strict instructions should
be given to the security forces to respect the prohibition of torture and
violation of such instructions should be punished immediately.