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inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in his report on his mission to Mongolia in
2005 (E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.4, para. 39) (arts. 1 and 4).
The State party should adopt a definition of torture with all the elements of
article 1 of the Convention in its national criminal legislation. The State party
should include torture as a separate crime in its legislation, in line with article 4
of the Convention, and should ensure that penalties for torture are appropriate
for the gravity of this crime.
Fundamental legal safeguards
8.
The Committee is concerned at information that arbitrary arrests and detentions
occur frequently, with some two thirds of pretrial detentions taking place without court
orders. The Committee is also concerned that arrested suspects often do not have prompt
access to a judge, a lawyer, a medical doctor and their family as prescribed by law, and that
pretrial detention is not used as a last resort (arts. 2, 11 and 12).
The State party should take prompt and effective measures to ensure that all
detainees are afforded all fundamental legal safeguards from the very outset of
their detention. These include the rights of detainees to be informed of the
reasons of their arrest, to have prompt access to a lawyer and, when necessary,
to legal aid. They should also have access to an independent medical
examination, preferably by a doctor of their own choice, to notify a relative and
to be brought promptly before a judge, and to have the lawfulness of their
detention reviewed by a court, in accordance with international standards.
Impunity for acts of torture
9.
The Committee is concerned at reports that law enforcement officials and
interrogators are not always prosecuted and adequately punished for acts of torture and illtreatment. This was also referred to by the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture,
who stated that “impunity is the principal cause of torture and ill treatment”. The Special
Rapporteur concluded that torture persists, particularly in police stations and pretrial
detention facilities, and that “the absence in the Criminal Code of a definition of torture in
line with the Convention and the lack of effective mechanisms to receive and investigate
complaints provides shelter to perpetrators” (ibid.) (arts. 1, 2, 4, 12 and 16).
The State party is urged to bring impunity to an end and ensure that torture
and ill-treatment by public officials will not be tolerated and that all alleged
perpetrators of acts of torture will be investigated and, if appropriate,
prosecuted, convicted and punished with penalties appropriate to the gravity of
the crime. The State party should ensure that efficient and independent
investigative mechanisms be established against impunity regarding torture
and ill-treatment. Article 44.1 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates that
“causing harm to the rights and interests protected by this Code in the course
of fulfilling mandatory orders or decrees shall not constitute a crime”, should
be immediately repealed. The State party legislation should also clearly
stipulate that a superior order may not be invoked as a justification for torture.
Ill-treatment and the excessive use of force during the 1 July 2008 events
10.
The Committee is concerned at reports that during the riots on 1 July 2008 in
Sukhbaatar Square and during the state of emergency police resorted to unnecessary and
excessive use of force. The Committee is concerned at reports that most cases of
unnecessary and excessive use of force by police occurred after the declaration of the state
of emergency. It is also concerned about the results of a survey conducted by the National
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