CAT/C/BIH/CO/6
11.
The State party should ensure, in law and in practice, that all detainees are
afforded all the fundamental legal safeguards from the outset of the deprivation of
liberty, including the safeguards mentioned in paragraphs 13 and 14 of the
Committee’s general comment No. 2 (2007) on the implementation of article 2. In
particular, the State party should:
(a)
Adopt legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure that all
detained persons, including those held in police facilities, have the right to request and
receive a medical examination by an independent medical doctor from the outset of
the deprivation of liberty, and that the examination is conducted out of hearing and
sight of police and prison staff, unless the doctor concerned explicitly requests
otherwise in a given case. The State party should also ensure that the report prepared
after the medical examination contains, inter alia: (i) an account of the statements
made by the person that are relevant to the medical examination (including his or her
state of health and any allegations of ill-treatment); (ii) a full account of the objective
medical findings based on a thorough examination; and (iii) the health-care
professional’s observations in the light of (i) and (ii) above, with indications of the
consistency between allegations made by the detained person and the objective
medical findings. The results of the examination should be made available to the
detained person concerned and his or her lawyer. Health-care professionals should
not be exposed to any form of undue pressure or reprisal from management staff
when they fulfil that duty, nor should the detained person;
(b)
Reinforce the system of free legal aid, including by effectively
implementing the Law on Free Legal Aid Provision in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to
ensure that the right to access to a competent and independent lawyer applies to
everyone deprived of his or her liberty, including persons held in police custody, from
the outset of the deprivation of liberty;
(c)
Monitor regularly the compliance with the legal safeguards by all public
officials and ensure that those who do not respect the safeguards are duly disciplined.
Ill-treatment by the police
12. While taking note of the information provided by the State party during the dialogue,
the Committee is seriously concerned at the findings of the report by the European
Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (CPT) following its visit to the State party in 2015, which indicated that
detainees were routinely ill-treated or even tortured in police holding facilities and that the
practice of repeated slaps, punches, kicks and blows with a truncheon in order to extort a
confession was even considered as normal. The Committee is gravely concerned at reports
that some detainees were threatened with a pistol in their mouths and subjected to mock
executions. It regrets that this dire situation has not changed since the previous visits by the
CPT in 2011 and 2012 (arts. 12–13).
13.
The Committee urges the State party to take all the necessary measures to:
(a)
Send a clear message from the highest possible office that torture and illtreatment are unacceptable and that perpetrators will be held criminally responsible
for their acts;
(b)
Ensure that all allegations of torture or ill-treatment by law enforcement
officials are promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigated by an independent
body, and that perpetrators are duly prosecuted, and if found guilty, convicted with
penalties that are commensurate with the grave nature of their crimes;
(c)
Develop training modules for the police on non-coercive interviewing
and investigation techniques with a view to reducing reliance on confessions to secure
convictions;
(d)
Ensure the installation of video recording equipment in all rooms used
for police interrogations, except in cases in which the right of detainees to privacy or
to confidential communication with their lawyer or doctor may be violated.
Independent monitoring of video recordings of police interrogations should be
3