E/CN.4/2000/9/Add.1
page 2
Introduction
1.
This document contains information supplied by Governments relating to the
recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur. The recommendations were made following
a series of visits to Chile (see E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.2), Colombia (see E/CN.4/1995/111),
Mexico (see E/CN.4/1998/38/Add.2) and Venezuela (see E/CN.4/1997/7/Add.3). The
information also covers individual cases which were reported to the Special Rapporteur on the
occasion of these visits. Owing to a shortage of resources, the Special Rapporteur was unable
to include in his report to the Commission at its fifty-fifth session the replies received
between 6 December 1997 and 10 December 1998. All the replies received by the Special
Rapporteur between 6 December 1997 and 15 December 1999 are included in the present
document. The Special Rapporteur’s comments may be found in the main report.
Chile
Follow-up to the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur concerning torture in the
report of his visit to Chile in August 1995 (E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.2)
2.
By note verbale dated 10 September 1996 the Government transmitted to the Special
Rapporteur a number of observations on the recommendations he made following his visit to
Chile in August 1995 (see E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.2). A summary of the Government’s comments
and the Special Rapporteur’s observations were included in the report which the Rapporteur
submitted to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-third session (E/CN.4/1997/7,
paras. 43-54).
3.
By letter dated 22 September 1997, the Special Rapporteur asked the Government for
information on a number of aspects of those recommendations, which are set out under various
headings (E/CN.4/1998/38, paras. 46 and 47). The Government responded to the request in
letters dated 25 March and 24 September 1998. The questions posed by the Rapporteur and a
summary of the Government’s replies are set out below.
4.
In the legislative field, the Special Rapporteur asked the Government for information on
the follow-up given to the report by the Constitutional, Legislative and Judicial Committee of the
Chamber of Deputies, which proposed eliminating the “arrest on suspicion” provision from the
Code of Criminal Procedure; the follow-up to the bill reforming the Code of Criminal Procedure
and the Penal Code with regard to detention and the strengthening of the protection of civil
rights; the situation concerning the draft Code of Criminal Procedure and the Prosecution Service
(Organization) bill; and the steps taken towards the adoption of the bill submitted to the Chamber
of Deputies in 1996 to characterize torture as an offence.
5.
Concerning the bill which modifies the provisions of the current Code of Criminal
Procedure and the Penal Code dealing with detention and sets out rules for the protection of
citizens, the Government reported the adoption of Act No. 19.567 on 22 June 1998 and provided
the Special Rapporteur with a copy, together with a note explaining the main elements and
photocopies of the articles of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Penal Code which have
been amended or deleted by the new Act. The Act entered into force on 1 July 1998. Its main
provisions are summarized below.