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with international standards and decrees guaranteeing the availability of safeguards to
prevent torture from the moment of arrest, he urges the State to ensure that concrete
practical changes result from legislative and policy improvements.
Serious concern is expressed about allegations of reprisals against detainees who
have spoken or complained of mistreatment in detention, and about the fact that torture and
ill-treatment continue to take place under similar circumstances to those observed in 2012,
particularly during the first hours of detention and interrogation in police custody and in
some pre-trial detention facilities. In this context, the Special Rapporteur recommends that
Tajikistan ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) as a
matter of priority and ensure the implementation of an effective National Preventive
Mechanism (NPM), alongside independent monitoring by civil society
In Tunisia, the Special Rapporteur was encouraged to find that the spirit of reform
and human rights brought by the 2011 Revolution continues in Tunisia today, and
expressed his appreciation for the fact that his former report and recommendations were
well-received by the authorities. While congratulating the State for positive institutional
and legal reforms it has undertaken since his last visit, he urges the Government to continue
seizing the momentum generated by the State’s transition to democracy to achieve
accountability to end the cycle of impunity for gross violations of human rights, and ensure
access to justice, including redress to all victims of torture and their families. The State’s
commitment to eradicating torture must be accompanied by practical measures, including
the adoption of appropriate safeguards designed to prevent torture and ill-treatment, such as
shortening the legal period of garde à vue and guaranteeing access to a lawyer from the
moment of deprivation of liberty, in both law and practice.
The Special Rapporteur expresses concern about the fact that torture and illtreatment continue to take place in Tunisia today, particularly in the context of counterterrorism and as a means of conducting investigations and extracting confessions, and
about some notable shortcomings in the national definition of torture, which is not in line
with that of the Convention against Torture. He hopes that the Government will do more to
ensure prompt, independent, and impartial investigations into all allegations of torture and
ill-treatment, prosecutions and conventions in accordance with the severity of the crime,
and the provision of reparations, including as full rehabilitation as possible. The Special
Rapporteur welcomes Tunisia’s ratification of the OPCAT and its establishment of an NPM
and urges the Government to ensure that this body is adequate staffed and resourced.
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