Strengthening regional co-operation to prevent torture and ill-treatment in police custody focus of OSCE/ODIHR event in Strasbourg

The protection of people in police custody from torture and other ill-treatment, and ensuring safeguards such as access to a lawyer and effective legal representation during criminal investigations, were the focus of a regional meeting of representatives of national preventive mechanisms (NPMs) and human rights defenders active in the fight against torture, which took place in Strasbourg on 5 November 2019.

Building on the two regional anti-torture conferences for NPMs and civil society organizations in 2016 and 2018, the participants discussed ways to strengthen synergies between NPMs and civil society for the protection of police detainees from torture and other ill-treatment. They looked into existing practices of independent monitoring of police stations, one of the strongest safeguards against torture in the OSCE region. They also discussed the role of lawyers in preventing torture in the first hours of police custody.

Organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Geneva-based Association for the Prevention of Torture and the Council of Europe (CoE), the event brought together about 100 representatives of NPMs and civil society from OSCE participating States and CoE member States. They were joined by international and regional experts from ODIHR, the CoE, the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, OSCE field operations and other international experts.

The meeting took place on the margins of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture’s 30th anniversary celebration. The event was a result of ODIHR's continuous work over the past four years with NPMs, ombuds institutions, national human rights institutions and civil society actors in the field of independent monitoring of places of detention.