THE PROHIBITION OF TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT
IN THE INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM:
A HANDBOOK FOR VICTIMS AND THEIR ADVOCATES
AUTHORS: Claudia Martin and Diego Rodríguez Pinzón
REVISED AND UPDATED:
Helena Solà Martín
TRANSLATOR AND EDITOR: Joanne Hutchinson
Print: Sté Crea Concept
Layout: mostra-design.com
First edition: September 2006
Second edition: April 2014
© 2014 World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
ISBN 2-88894-049-3
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
P.O. Box 21
8, rue du Vieux-Billard
CH-1211 Geneva 8
Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0)22 809 49 39
Fax: +41 (0)22 809 49 29
E-mail: omct@omct.org
www.omct.org
PUBLICATIONS EDITOR: Helena Solà Martín
PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR: Gerald Staberock
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) coordinates the activities of the SOS-Torture Network, which
is the world’s largest coalition of non-governmental organisations fighting against torture and ill-treatment,
arbitrary detention, extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, and other serious human rights violations.
OMCT’s growing global network currently includes 311 local, national, and regional organisations in 92 countries
spanning all regions of the world. An important aspect of OMCT’s mandate is to respond to the advocacy and
capacity-building needs of its network members, including the need to develop effective international litigation
strategies to assist victims of torture and ill-treatment in obtaining legal remedies where none are available
domestically, and to support them in their struggle to end impunity in states where torture and ill-treatment
remain endemic or tolerated practices. In furtherance of these objectives, OMCT publishes an updated edition
of the Handbook for victims and their advocates, which was first published in 2006. This Handbook is the second
of a series of four volumes, each one providing a guide to the practice, procedure, and jurisprudence of the
regional and international mechanisms that are competent to examine individual complaints concerning the
violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and ill-treatment.