the Caucasus, and Central Asia. These activities are currently conducted by two posttable professional staff and four professional staff funded through generous contributions of the participating States. The Office builds on these resources by using outside
expertise, stressing good practices developed across the OSCE region, including from
those states with comparable experiences.
In 2005, the participating States
recognized the importance of work
in the area of criminal-justice reform through Ljubljana Ministerial
Decision No. 12 on “Upholding Human Rights and the Rule of Law in
Criminal Justice Systems”. The participating States agreed to increase
attention to this area in 2006.
Co-operation with OSCE field operations is vital, as those on the ground in the relevant countries are able to react quickly to developments in governmental policies
or to cases that require OSCE involvement. The ODIHR also co-operates with a strong
network of governmental and non-governmental partners, recognizing that they are a
fundamental part of all its fieldwork.
Torture prevention
Prevention of torture, as well as other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, is a
topical issue in the OSCE area. Frequent instances of such treatment are symptoms of
deficient criminal-justice systems that lack adequate safeguards for the protection of
human rights. Such systems have implicit incentives that reward “solving crimes” at any
cost. This leads to reliance by the police and prosecutors on confessions and witness
testimony obtained through pressure and illegal treatment, with courts often closing
their eyes to such illegally obtained evidence. Breaking this cycle requires the removal
of flawed institutional incentives, greater professionalism, accountability, and a zerotolerance policy towards abusers.
For these reasons, the ODIHR approaches torture prevention as an integral part of criminal-justice reform, promoting political awareness and encouraging structural changes
in criminal-justice systems.
In 2005, the ODIHR continued to advocate for the transfer of power to authorize arrest from prosecutors to the judiciary. The ODIHR also continued to support the development of independent monitoring boards for places of detention and encouraged
participating States to give early consideration to signing and ratifying the Optional
Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT).
Transfer of authorization of arrest to the judiciary
Most ill-treatment and torture take place against people held in custody. International
human rights standards and OSCE commitments require that the decision on whether
someone is to be held in custody be made by an independent judge. This is done
through a procedure known as habeas corpus. The integration of this procedure into legislation puts both the defence and prosecution on a more equal footing when arguing
their points before the court in an adversarial setting, as the prosecutor does not have the
immediate advantage of deciding if a defendant remains in custody.
To date, prosecutors in six countries in the OSCE region retain the authority to place and
hold a person in custody: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan.
At present, discussions on the transfer of powers of arrest from the prosecutor’s office to
the judiciary are prominent on the agenda in some countries of Central Asia. The ODIHR
provides legislative advice and facilitates the sharing of experience and expertise on