CAT/C/BGD/CO/1
enforcement officials for the purpose of obtaining confessions or to solicit the payment of
bribes. While noting the information provided by the State party’s delegation that a total of
17 cases have been filed against members of the law enforcement agencies under the Act,
the Committee is concerned that further information about these cases is not publicly
available and was not provided by the delegation, and at reports it has received that no case
filed under the act has been completed since its enactment. Further, the Committee is
concerned at reports that officials from the police and other authorities have repeatedly
requested that the Act be amended or repealed to shield certain forces from liability under
the act or to limit the scope of conduct prohibited by the Act. While appreciating the
statement by the delegation that no amendment will be brought and that the Government
has a “zero tolerance” policy with regard to criminal conduct by members of the law
enforcement agencies, and noting comments made by the Prime Minister during “Police
week 2019” that “no innocent person should fall victim to torture and harassment”, the
Committee remains seriously concerned that law enforcement authorities request such
exemptions and continue to consider it necessary and acceptable to engage in conduct
amounting to torture and ill-treatment in the course of their work. Moreover, it is gravely
concerned that the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act 2013 is not being
effectively implemented in practice. The Committee wishes to remind the State party that
article 2, paragraph 2, of the Convention states that “No exceptional circumstances
whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any
other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.” (arts. 2, 4, 15 and 16).
8.
The State party should:
(a)
Publicly acknowledge at the highest levels of the Government that
combating the routine commission of torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement
officers is an urgent concern and state unambiguously that torture and ill-treatment
will not be tolerated under any circumstances or against any person;
(b)
Publicly affirm that the Government has no intention of limiting the
applicability of the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act to any officials in
the State party, that it understands the Act to apply to all such forces, including those
not listed in the enumerated list of law enforcement agencies, and that anyone
committing acts of torture or otherwise complicit or acquiescent in torture will bear
individual criminal responsibility for such acts before the law;
(c)
Ensure that officials who commit acts of torture and ill-treatment are
prosecuted and punished with penalties commensurate to the crime of torture,
including those with superior or command responsibility;
(d)
Ensure that law enforcement officials receive and apply in practice
training in forensic, non-coercive investigation methods and ensure all law
enforcement officials are aware that it is unacceptable to engage in torture and illtreatment to pressure criminal suspects to confess to crimes;
(e)
Take measures to ensure that confessions obtained from criminal
suspects through torture or ill-treatment are not accepted in practice as evidence of
guilt;
(f)
Systematically collect statistical data at the national level on the
implementation of the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act, including
information on the number of complaints, investigations, prosecutions and trials and
on the number of convictions in cases of torture or ill-treatment, on the punishments
meted out to perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment found guilty, and on measures
of redress, particularly the compensation and rehabilitation afforded to victims.
Inadequate investigation of complaints of torture
9.
The Committee is seriously concerned at information it has received that
mechanisms established by the State party to receive and investigate complaints of torture
and ill-treatment by officials are not leading in practice to meaningful accountability for
perpetrators. The Committee is concerned at reports that police officers frequently refuse to
register claims of torture or disappearance brought by victims or family members. The
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