Role of law enforcement officials vital to prevent torture, say participants at dedicated conference

The crucial role played by the police and other law enforcement officials in serving their communities and preventing torture and other ill-treatment of people in the criminal justice system is the focus of a dedicated conference today.

Despite the timely reaffirmation by OSCE countries last year to prevent and eradicate torture and other ill-treatment, the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment continues to be practiced in criminal justice systems across the region. The prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment forms part of customary international law. Violating this prohibition is a grave breach of human rights - and a crime under - international law  and counterproductive to national security interests.

“There is now consistent evidence that coercive interviewing techniques are ineffective,” said Matteo Mecacci, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). “They often lead to false confessions rather than holding the real perpetrators to account.”

At the same time, a recent joint publication by ODIHR and Fair Trials highlighted that there may be incentives for law enforcement officials to use torture or other ill-treatment in order to obtain confessions as evidence to lead to convictions. Confession-based justice systems, along with other factors like performance quotas based on arrests and impunity, can become incentives to police and other law enforcement officials to resort to the use of torture.

Today’s conference, which brings together representatives of countries from around the OSCE region, international and regional institutions, and civil society organizations specialized in torture prevention,  gives participants the opportunity to share promising practices that can reduce incentives to use torture.

"The turn-around operation — from confession-orientated interrogations to investigative interviewing — requires a change of mindset,” said Asbjørn Rachlew, Police Superintendent in Oslo. “We need to teach our detectives to think differently. We need to provide them with knowledge and methodology that stimulates them to generate alternative hypotheses AND actively test them, rather than pursuing information, confirming their belief of guilt.” 

Participants will discuss the importance of an institutional culture in the police based on human rights and gender sensitivity, both to prevent torture and to ensure that any perpetrators are swiftly held accountable. All professionals in the criminal justice system therefore need to receive appropriate training on the identification, reporting and prevention of torture and other ill-treatment, including training on the Istanbul Protocol.

Conclusions and recommendations on the best means of eliminating incentives for torture in criminal justice systems and increasing the positive role of law enforcement officials can play in combating torture and ill-treatment will feed into the OSCE’s ongoing work to prevent torture.

The conference was organized by the Permanent Representation of Denmark and the Permanent Representation of Switzerland to the OSCE, with the support of the OSCE 2021 Swedish Chairpersonship and ODIHR.